Diameter: 12,756 km
Mass: 5,974,200,000,000,000,000,000 tonnes
Composition: Rocky: silicates & metals
Atmosphere: Nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide
Surface Temperature: -89 to 58 °C
Year length: 365.25 days
Day length: 24 hours
The Earth from space
- Earth is one of the four terrestrial planets.
- The name Earth comes from the Old English eorthe.
- The mean distance between the Sun and Earth is approximately 149,600,000 km.
- Light travels the distance from the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds.
- Earth is made up of a surface of rigid tectonic plates which move relative to each other along boundaries and forming the geological definition for the Earth's continents.
- These tectonic plates build up mountains, create ridges visible on land and underwater, and whose movement results in volcanic and seismic activity.
- The Earth was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, with life arising within one billion years of its formation.
- Life on Earth, in some form or another, is expected to continue for another 500 million to 2.3 billion years before being consumed by the heat of the dying Sun.