What Are Some Interesting Facts About Earth?

What are some interesting facts about Earth? Most people enjoy sports or movie trivia, but how about trivia about the planet that we live on. The fascination of celestial bodies often starts by looking at our own planet and then comparing it to others. By doing this, we can see exactly how different, exciting and special the planet Earth really is.

• Age: Scientists estimate the Earth to be around 4.6 billion years old.
• Day: A day is how long it takes the Earth to make one revolution. It takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to make this journey.
• Year: A year is how long it takes the Earth to go around the sun once. This takes 365 days, 5 hours, 41 minutes and 48 seconds. The extra time is why we add a day to the calendar every four years. This is called leap year.
• Circumference: The circumference of the earth at the equator is approximately 29,401.55 miles. However, since the Earth is not completely round, but rather bulges in the center, measuring the Earth’s circumference around the north and south poles gives a slightly smaller circumference of 24,859.82 miles.
• Depth: From the surface to the center, the depth of the Earth measures 3,963 miles.
• Elements: The Earth is made up of iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, aluminum and other trace elements.
• Water to Land Ratio: The Earth is mostly made up of water. Seventy percent of the world is ocean; only thirty percent is land.
• Natural Satellites: Unlike other planets, Earth has only one natural satellite, the moon.

Earth Extremes

• Hottest: The hottest day in recorded history occurred in El Azizia, Libia, at 136 degrees Fahrenheit. Coming in a close second at a 134 degrees was a temperature recorded in Death Valley, California.
• Coldest: Vostok in Antarctica boasts the coldest day in recorded history at −129 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Wettest: Lloro, Columbia amasses more than forty inches of rain a year.
• Driest: Arica located in Chile receives less than an inch of rain a year.
• Highest: Measuring from the center of the earth to the furthest point, Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. The highest point above sea level is Mount Everest in Nepal.
• Lowest: The Dead Sea shore in Israel-Jordan rests −1,385 feet below sea level.
• Largest Island: Greenland is the largest island on planet Earth.

Comparisons to Other Planets

• Mercury is one third the size of Earth and contains only ten percent of the surface area and five percent of its volume. A person would weigh only one third of his or her body weight when standing on Mercury.
• Venus is very similar to Earth in size, just slightly smaller by about five percent. It contains about eighty-two percent of the mass and ninety percent of the gravity. However, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system.
• Mars is approximately half the size of Earth but with only ten percent of the mass. Similar to Mercury, a person would weigh about one third of his or her body weight. Mars has seasons similar to Earth, and it has a similar day, taking approximately 1.3 Earth days to revolve once. However, it takes two Earth years to equal one year on Mars.
• Jupiter is eleven times larger than Earth in diameter and over 1300 Earths can fit inside of the planet. Jupiter is one of the gas planets and therefore has no surface. However, if a person could stand on Jupiter, he or she would weight two and a half times in body weight.
• Saturn is almost nine and a half times bigger than Earth and can fit about 764 Earths inside the planet. As another gas planet, it has no surface but a visitor would be the same weight on Saturn as on Earth. At last count, Saturn had 62 moons to Earth’s one. It takes about eighty years for Saturn to go around the sun once.
• Uranus is about three times the size of Earth in diameter. Uranus has fifteen moons and takes about eighty-four years to rotate around the sun once. The poles of the planet face the sun, unlike Earth that stands relatively straight up. The earth rotates from west to east but Uranus rotates from east to west.
• Neptune is similar in size to Uranus. Approximately fifty-seven earths could fill Neptune. Neptune takes almost 165 years to rotate around the sun. People would weight at least fourteen percent more on the surface, if it had one. Neptune has at least thirteen known moons but may have others yet undiscovered.

This is just a small sampling of the many interesting facts about the Earth. Many more can be found throughout the Internet or just by reading the local daily newspaper.