Earth is the only planet whose …
… the name in English does not come from a god. The other planets in our solar system are named after the Roman gods and goddesses.
How old is the Earth?
The exact age of the Earth cannot be fully determined. As a result of the use of two dating techniques – radiometric and geometric timescale – scientists indicate that the Earth was 4.6 billion years ago.
We are all travelers
Yes, it is true, we are all travelers and find ourselves on a ship called Earth. As Earth passengers, whether we like it or not, we are transported around the Sun at an average speed of 107,182 km / h.
Earth versus …
If you were to compare the sun to the size of a beach ball, Jupiter would be a golf ball and the earth would be a small pea.
Man will survive …
- equal to two minutes in outer space without a spacesuit. In turn, tardigrades are one of the strongest living animals, able to survive up to 10 days in a vacuum.
- The day does not last 24 hours
- Surprised? It is a fact. The total time it takes for the Earth to rotate around its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds.
Garbage man in space
Since the launch of the first artificial satellite by the USSR in 1957, man has sent over 38,000 items into space. Currently, nearly 22,000 objects are in orbit. Five percent of them are working satellites. NASA has calculated that at least one garbage falls to Earth every day.
Armstrong Line
This term describes an altitude between 18,900 and 19,350 meters above sea level, at which the atmospheric pressure is so low that the water and water in the human body begins to boil at 37 degrees Celsius. The phenomenon was first described by the American general Harry George Armstrong. Flying at these and higher altitudes requires wearing special suits or airtight cabins.
Why do we need this extra day in February?
Every four years we have a leap year, then an additional day on February 29 appears in the calendar. This is due to the Earth’s orbit around the sun for 365.26 days. The next leap year will take place in 2020.
The largest waterfall in the world
11 times the size of Niagara Falls, 151 meters taller than the largest man-made building. Nature can amaze you. The Salto del Angel waterfall, 979 meters high, is located in Venezuela in the Canaima National Park. Its longest step is as much as 807 meters. It is named after its discoverer Jimmy Angel.
The largest building in the world
On September 21, 2004, the construction of the largest building in the world began in Dubai. However, initially, in the architect’s plan, the building was 560 meters high. The project was successively edited, and its height increased – first 650 meters, then 705 meters, until it was finally decided that the Burj Khalifa would be 828 meters high. The implementation of the project cost 1.5 billion dollars.
Earth as the center of the universe
Due to the slight movements of the sun and planets in relation to their point of view, it was formerly believed that the Earth is the center of the universe, while the other celestial bodies orbit it. This thesis was refuted by Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish Astronomer!
Attention, storm!
Every day around the world it thunders nearly 8.6 million times.
Atmosphere
The Earth’s atmosphere is made up of many gases, the most of which is nitrogen. Nitrogen accounts for about 78.1% of the atmosphere, oxygen 20.9%, Argon 0.93%. Other gases that can be found in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere are: neon, helium, methane, krypton, and hydrogen.
It is divided into layers, the lowest of which is the troposphere (6 to 20 km), then the stratosphere (20 to 50 km), the mesosphere (50 to 85 km), the thermosphere (85 to 690 km) and the exosphere (690 to 10,000 km).
Throughout its history, the Earth has had four different atmospheres.
- Initially, it was surrounded by a primary atmosphere, which was made up of remnants of protoplanetary gas, mainly hydrogen and helium. As the protoplanetary disk thinned out, these gases escaped from the Earth’s atmosphere into space.
- After it, the first atmosphere appeared – it was made of degassed matter that fell to Earth during space bombardments. Most (about 80%) was water vapor. The other gases were: carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. The first atmosphere developed about 4 billion years ago and the high greenhouse gas content made the Earth an extremely hot place.
- The second atmosphere was created when most of the water vapor condensed and fell to Earth in the form of rainfall. The most common gas in the atmosphere then was carbon dioxide.
- The third atmosphere was created by the first living organisms, the inhabitants of the oceans – which, through photosynthesis, began to produce oxygen. Since then, oxygen has been continuously present in the atmosphere and provides the living conditions for most organisms.
How many people live on Earth?
Currently, about 7.6 billion people live on our planet. By 2050, that number will increase to approximately 9.7 billion. In total, over 107 billion people lived on Earth.
How many moons does the earth have?
Our planet has one natural satellite. In terms of size in the Solar System, our Moon ranks fifth. Were it not for him, the Earth’s day would only last 6 hours. Interestingly, during the Cold War, the US government planned to drop an atomic bomb on it. This was to show the country’s military advantage over Russia.
Planet full of life
Earth is a planet full of life. It is inhabited by about 11 million species, of which about 1.9 million have been described so far.
- Mammals – about 5,500 species
- Birds – about 9,900 species
- Reptiles – about 8,700 species
- Amphibians – about 6,500 species
- Fish – about 31,100 species
- Invertebrates – about 1,360,000 species
- Plants – about 310,000 species
- Mushrooms – about 99,000 species
** INTERETSING FACTS**
- The sun is so large that it could contain 1.3 million Earth inside it.
- If you drilled a tunnel from one point on the Earth through its center and jumped into it, you would be on the other side in about 42 minutes.
- 8 minutes 20 seconds – about this time light needs to travel the distance between the sun and Earth
- Before the trees appeared on our planet, it was covered with giant mushrooms.
- Scientists estimated that our galaxy has at least two billion Earth-like planets.
- 7,500,000,000,000,000,000 – there are about this number of grains of sand on our planet. Interestingly, for every single grain on the beach, there are about 10,000 stars in the universe.
- The Earth’s core is as hot as the sun.
- The Earth is the only place in the solar system where water exists in three states: solid, liquid and vapor.
- The World Wildlife Fund has announced that Planet Earth has lost nearly 40% of its fauna and flora.
- The Earth is the only place in the solar system where a total solar eclipse can occur.
- About 22,000 man-made objects are circulating around the Earth.
- In terms of size, the earth ranks fifth among the planets in the solar system.
- The equatorial radius of the Earth is 6378.137 km.
- The Earth formed from a protoplanetary disk around the Sun about 4.54 billion years ago. For the first billion years, it was a hostile, harsh, rocky place where life did not exist. According to research, the first living organisms appeared in Earth’s oceans about 3.5 billion years ago.
- The Earth’s atmosphere weighs approximately 5.15 trillion tons. As much as 75% of the atmosphere is below 11 kilometers. With each additional kilometer, its density becomes thinner due to the decreasing attraction. The contractual boundary separating the atmosphere from outer space is the Kármán Line, located at an altitude of 100 km above sea level.
- The Earth orbits the sun in an elliptical orbit in 365,235 days.
- Depending on the classification on Earth, we distinguish the existence of five to seven continents. According to the most common division, there are: Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. From a geological point of view, however, Europe and Asia form one continent – Eurasia. It is similar with the oceans – depending on the divisions, there are from three to five of them. There are oceans: the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the South and the Arctic. Calm, Atlantic and Indian are considered basic. We call all ocean waters combined into an all-ocean.
- Due to the rotation of the Earth, the diameter of the equator is 43 km larger than the polar diameter. So, the earth is a slightly flattened sphere – this shape is known as a geoid.
- The Earth’s core is a sphere 6,940 km in diameter – so it is larger than Mars. It is made of an alloy of nickel and iron with small admixtures of other elements. It reaches temperatures from 5500 to 6500 ° C and the pressure there is 13.5 million atmospheres.
- The highest point on Earth is Mount Everest. The summit is 8,848 m above sea level. However, Mount Everest is not the farthest point from the center of the planet, as this title fell to the top of the volcanic mountain Chimborazo located in Ecuador.
- The lowest point on our planet is the Marian Trench. The depth of the Pacific trench at its lowest point is 10,924 meters. The immersion record in the Marian Trench was set on March 26, 2012 by director James Cameron, who descended 10,898 meters aboard the one-man bathyscaphe “Deepsea Challenger”.
- Although it is hard to believe, the earth’s crust is 47% oxygen. It is trapped in the soil in the form of various oxides, the most common of which are: silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide and iron oxide.
- Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, and driest continent on Earth.
- Every day, the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs 100 to 300 tons of cosmic dust.
- Every year, on average, there are about 500,000 detectable earthquakes on our planet. 100,000 of them are felt, of which 100 of them cause injuries.
- With each century, the Earth’s day becomes 1.7 milliseconds longer.
- If our planet did not have a moon, a day would only last 6 hours.
- Oceans cover 71% of our planet’s surface.
- Ants were able to colonize almost any land on Earth except Antarctica and some very inhospitable islands.
- The Amazon forests are responsible for the production of about 20% of the planet’s oxygen.
- There are about 10 volcanic eruptions every day.
- If the history of the Earth had been condensed into 24 hours, life would have appeared at 4 am, land plants at 10:24 pm, dinosaurs would have died out at 11:41 pm, and human history would have started at 11:58:43 pm.
- Texas is the only one in the world to have a place called Earth.
- On March 23, 2011, a powerful earthquake occurred in the northeast of Japan, which increased the rotation speed of our planet and shortened the day by 1.8 microseconds.
- If the Earth and the billiard ball were the same size, our planet would turn out to be much smoother.
- About 3.04 trillion trees grow worldwide.
- In the more distant future – plus or minus 5 billion years – the Sun will run out of its hydrogen and helium reserves. When this happens, it will then become a giant red star that will engulf Mercury and Venus, and maybe even our planet.
- More than half of the world’s land is not owned by any state.
- Over the past 30 years, wind speed has decreased by almost 60%.
- 6.4 billion kilometers – this is the greatest distance from which a photo of the Earth has been taken.
- Antarctica has as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water.
- 90% of the trash in the waters is plastic.
- Between 8 and 12 people are killed in shark attacks each year. In turn, humans kill about 100 million sharks in order to obtain their fins.
- Earth is the only planet in the solar system with tectonic plates. If not for them, our planet would be overheating.
- Do you think it is raining everywhere on Earth? You are wrong! The dry McMurdo Valleys in Antarctica have not seen rain in nearly 2 million years.
- A man dies in the world every two seconds.
- The lithosphere is the outermost shell of the globe. It is made of tectonic plates that are constantly moving. In zones where these plates collide and rub, earthquakes can occur. In such areas, mountains also rise or form faults (e.g., the Marian Trench). The largest tectonic plates on Earth are: Pacific, African, North American, Eurasian, Antarctic, Indo-Australian and South American.
- The largest tectonic plate is the Pacific one, it covers an area of 103 million square kilometers. Most of the plate is submerged under the ocean, the mainland area of the Pacific Plate is only a slice of the California coast, Lower California, and New Zealand. The Pacific tectonic plate has a heat spot (underground hot area) from which the Hawaiian Islands have emerged.
- The Earth has one natural satellite – the Moon. The moon is relatively large for a natural satellite. Its diameter is approximately 1/4 the diameter of the Earth. It orbits the Earth at an average distance of 384,400 km.
- The length of the day on Earth is constantly increasing. In the first million years of Earth’s existence, a day lasted only four hours. From the very beginning, the Earth, rotating around its axis, loses energy and this translates into lower and lower rotational speed and longer days. At the beginning of the existence of dinosaurs, a day lasted about 22 hours, and at the end of their existence, 66 million years, about 23 hours. We will reach 25 hours a day in about 200 million years.
- Life on the surface of our planet has repeatedly been annihilated by great cataclysms called great extinctions. However, after each such event, living organisms were reborn, and in this way life on Earth has continued for billions of years. The final blow to our home planet is, however, the expansion of the dying Sun, which in about 7.6 billion years will increase its atmosphere so significantly that it will absorb the Earth.
- According to analyzes, the Earth will be able to sustain life for another 0.5 to 2.3 billion years. As hydrogen deposits in the solar core diminish, the star’s brightness is set to increase. In just over a billion years the sun will shine 10% brighter and in 3.5 million dates 40% brighter. Under such conditions, all surface waters on the planet will evaporate and the Earth will turn into a hellishly hot and unlivable place.
- Most people live in the northern hemisphere. This is due to the fact that the northern hemisphere makes up 68% of all land. It is estimated that in the future up to 90% of the population may live in this part of the globe.
- Most of the world’s land is used for animal husbandry (30 to 47%). Wasteland and wilderness (24 to 31%), forests for human use (16 to 27%), arable farms (12 to 14%) and infrastructure (1%) are in second place.
- There are over 7.8 billion people in the world. It took over 2 million years for mankind to reach a population of one billion. In 2011, there were 7 billion of us and we are already reaching 8. According to estimates, by 2050 there will be 9 to 10 billion people on earth and 10 to 12 at the end of the 21st century.
- The first man to leave his home planet was Yuri Gagarin. The two-hour flight of the Soviet astronaut outside the Earth’s atmosphere took place in 1961.
