The Facts About The Earth You Should Know!

1.The Name “Earth” Comes From Anglo-Saxons
Every other planet in our solar system is named after a Greek or Roman God, except our planet. The word Earth comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Erda, which means “ground” or “soil” and is thought to be 1,000 years old. Ironically, the planet is covered by 71% water -- the only planet we know of in the entire universe to have this precious fluid in liquid form.

2.There Are Not 24 Hours In a Day
People often claim there aren't enough hours in the day and they're right – not even 24. That's right, the actual time it takes the planet to rotate on its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds.

3.Earth Had a Twin Planet Called Theia
Scientists now believe that we were once not alone in our orbit around the Sun – we had a “twin” planet we call Theia, which was the size of Mars and was 60 degrees either in front or behind our Big Blue Ball. One afternoon about 4.533 billion years ago, Theia crashed into the Earth; most of the planet was absorbed, but a large chunk blew off and combined with materials from our planet to create the Moon. Why do we think this? It's because our Moon is unusually large for a planet of our size and has metallic isotopes similar to those on Earth.

4.Highest Point on Earth Is Not Mount Everest
True, it's one of the most famous mountains in the world, and at 29,035 ft. above sea level it's pretty darn tall. However, considering we now know that the Earth is not round (see #1), anyone or anything along the equator is slightly closer to the stars. This means that although Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is just 20,564 ft. above sea level, because it is on this “bump” it is technically further away from the Earth's center (i.e. “higher”) than Everest by 1.5 miles!

5.Coldest Temperature: -128.6 F
While the coldest place on Earth is Antarctica (-100 degrees F) the coldest spot was recorded on July 21, 1983 at Vostok Station in Anarctica, where sensors recorded –128.6 degrees F. (That's a cold summer!) The hottest spot recorded? On Sept. 13, 1922 El Azizia, Libya registered 136 degrees F.

6.The Mysterious Moon's (Almost) Perfect Orbit
Speaking of the Moon (and that is its official name) one thing is for sure: it is NOT made of cheese. Aside from that, there are some things we don't know. For example, the lunar center is 6,000 feet closer to the Earth, which should cause its orbit to be more wobbly/erratic, yet it is almost perfectly circular. The Moon is covered in a dust that strangely smells like gunpowder, even though they are completely different materials. Also, while there is no “dark side” of the moon, the Earth's gravitational force has caused the Moon to slow down so it rotates just once during a one-month period (referred to as "synchronous rotation") - that's why only one side faces us. In addition, it's quite an incredible coincidence that the Sun happens to be both 400 times bigger than the Moon and also 400 times farther away from Earth, making them appear the same size in the sky.

 

Some interesting facts there!

 

The 4th fact came as a surprsie to me , not that I knew about Theia.

 

Not only about internet marketing or making money online. In DP there are also a lot of science.
I love this thread.

 

Wow Cool

 

I think after 2000 earth going by new force. But I don't know its goal.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the Interesting Facts. But i have little bit confusion in Point number.5 that is Coldest Temperature

I had Heard about siberia . But i am not sure about it. Please clarify

Regards,

Roger