Earth

Looking back at the Earth from the Moon, the astronauts were shocked by how blue the Earth appeared. And it was the only bright blue object in their view.

It is one of the 3 planets that is not a sphere (round like a basketball), it is an oblate spheroid (bulgy at the equator, like a big belly). The Earth is made up mostly 4 elements – iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium,

A day on Earth is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds, and a year is 365.2564 days, which is why we have leap year every 4 years

Everyone knows what gravity is, but did you know that the gravity is not the same all over the planet (in fact, the ISS moves up and down due to differences in the gravitational pull). 70% of the planet is water, but only 2.5% of that water is fresh, and most of the water is frozen. Earth is the only planet we know of that has a crust (the top layer of the planet) that is in pieces that move. These are called tectonic plates.

How big is Earth?

Earth is 12,742 km (7,918 miles) wide and 40,075 km (24,901 miles) all the way around. That makes it the fifth biggest planet in our solar system.

How long does it take for Earth to orbit the Sun?

Earth takes about 365¼ days to go all the way around the Sun — that’s what we call a year. That extra ¼ day adds up, so every four years we add an extra day to the calendar: February 29th, known as Leap Day!

What is the Earth's surface like?

Earth is full of amazing places! It has tall mountains, deep canyons, wide plains, and huge oceans. Most of our planet is covered in water, and the land, sea, and air are always working together to shape our world.

A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon. While astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar orbit. Image Credit: NASA
Apollo Astronaut James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, works at the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the first Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. The shadow of the Lunar Module "Falcon" is in the foreground. This view is looking northeast, with Mount Hadley in the background. This photograph was taken by astronaut David R. Scott, commander. Image Credit: NASA
NASA's Galileo spacecraft took this image of Earth's Moon on Dec. 7, 1992, on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97. The distinct bright ray crater at the bottom of the image is the Tycho impact basin. Image Credit: NASA

WOW! This planet is going to be really cool when we get there, but we haven’t gone there yet.

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