Earth

You wake up in the morning, freshen up, have your breakfast and get to work. But have you ever wondered about the place you live in? Have you ever thought, if by any chance, an asteroid strikes the planet where we are living and damages it; what would happen to us? Can we live somewhere else in the solar system? Is there any other planet sustaining life in this universe?

Our home planet, popularly known as Earth, is the only yet known planet to sustain life. This spherical blue ball of 71% water and 29% land is 1495978 kilometers away from the Sun. Huge distance, isn't it? But this is the appropriate distance to sustain life. The reason why Earth is, what it is right now lies in history. A history that goes back billions of years. 

The Earth cc: space.com

About 4.5 billion years ago, gas, ice, and dust come together to form a volume of the molecular cloud. Asteroids collided with it. Particles accumulated together due to gravity, and they take the shape of a sphere. The sphere started rotating, and because there was no force to stop the rotation, the Earth still rotates! It spins on its axis with a speed of 1674.4 km/h. And this high rotation has led the Earth to take its today shape, which is not perfectly spherical!

Yes, the Earth is not perfectly spherical. It has bulged near the equator due to centrifugal force. The Earth has a radius of 6371 kilometers. But, as said, it's not spherical! The diameter of the equator is more than the diameter of the poles. And the difference between the two is as much as 43 kilometers!

cc: Wikipedia

Another seemingly normal, yet amazing fact? The Earth is tilted at an angle of about 23.5 degrees. Do you wonder why it is important to know? Because seasons happen because of this tilt! When the northern hemisphere faces toward the sun, summers happen; and winters occur in the southern hemisphere because it faces away from the Sun. The amount of sunlight we get also depends on this angle. Huh, don't know how we could enjoy the sweet weather if the Earth was perpendicular to its axis of rotation, and not tilted. 

While talking about the weather, let us all familiarize ourselves with the layers of the atmosphere. The lowermost layer or troposphere is holding the air we and all other living beings breathe. The stratosphere protects us from harmful UV radiation from the sun. The mesosphere burns up meteors and asteroids before it reaches the surface of the Earth. The aurora borealis and aurora australis happen in the thermosphere. Moreover, the ISS or the International Space Station orbits in the thermosphere. The exosphere is the home of many communication satellites, revolving around the planet. 

The layers of atmosphere of Earth cc: learning junction

The Earth is composed of four layers, the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust. The inner core has solid iron and nickel at high temperatures, while the outer core has liquified iron and nickel at high temperatures. The mantle is a hot, viscous mixture of molten rock. And last, but not least, the crust is what extends from the mantle to the ground we step on. 

The layers of the Earth cc: phys.org

Because of the iron present in its core, the Earth has a magnetic field protecting us from the harmful solar wind of the Sun. Moreover, the magnetic field is what causes the compass needles to point to the North Pole regardless of which way you turn. 

The magnetic field of Earth cc: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Many experiments were and are being conducted by different space agencies to understand the wonders of our planet and what makes it special to support life. Different aspects like oceans, atmosphere, natural disasters, magnetic field, and origin of chemical substances on the planet's surface. 

To know more about the solar system, follow us! 

Do like, share, and comment! We love you. Love the planet you live on.