Earth

Earth is the 3rd planet from the Sun, and the fifth largest body of the eight planets in the Solar System.

All of the planets in the Solar System are named after Roman and Greek gods and godesses from ancient mythology, except Earth

The name Earth has evolved over time,and is at leat 1000 years old. The name is an English/German name which means the ground. It from the Old English words 'eor(th)e' and 'ertha'. In German it is 'erde'.

As far as scientists know, the Earth is the most unique planet in the Solar System, because it has a liquid water source and supports life.

The blue white Earth is the largest of the inner terrestrial planets. Its color contrasts to those of out neighboring planets jewel bright Venus and the red planet Mars.

The Earth atmosphere is approximately 78% nitrogen, 21& oxygen and 1& other gases. Half of this atmospheric material is found in the troposphere 6 miles high. The stratosphere contains the ozone layer, which absorbs the dangerous ultra-violet rays from the Sun, and the mesosphere is where meteoroids or small objects, burn up because of air resistance.

Without water the plant life we know could not have flourished and oxygen would not be released into the carbon dioxide atmosphere to make air for animals to breathe. The water on the planet has a delicate balance, Vapor rises from the oceans, condenses into water, and fail back to the surface as rain or snow.

The Earth structure consists of a Crust, the Upper mantle, a Rocky mantle, the Lower mantle, a Molten metallic outer core then the solid metal inner core .

As the Earth spins, it axis rotates. One complete rotation takes 25,800 years, and is known as precession. The gravitational pull of the planets change the Earth’s orbit from circular to elongated over a period of 100,000 years.

The crust of the Earth or its shell is made of several large plates of solid rock. These plates are moving on the molten rock of the Earth’s mantle beneath and are constantly changing due to the great forces created by these plates as they drift. If two plates move against each other the crust may be forced up, creating mountain chains.

The Earth has one natural moon or satellite.

The diameter of the Earth is 7,926 miles with a mass of 6.5 sextillion tons. The minimum distance from the Sun is 91 million miles and the maximum is 94.5 million miles. The length of a year is 365 day and 5 hours, and the length of a day is 24 hours.