Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its global ocean, covering 70.8% of Earth's crust.
Earth Location. Logarithmic representation of the universe centered on the Solar System. Celestial bodies on this graphic are clickable and shown with their sizes enlarged. Knowledge of the location of Earth has been shaped by 400 years of telescopic observations, and has expanded radically since the start of the 20th century.
The known Solar System lacks super-Earths, planets between one and ten times as massive as the Earth, although the hypothetical Planet Nine, if it does exist, could be a super-Earth orbiting in the edge of the Solar System.
Of the Solar System's eight planets and its nine most likely dwarf planets, six planets and seven dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 300 natural satellites, or moons. At least 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded; of these, all are covered by a crust of ice except for Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Io . [1]
Orion Arm – a spiral arm of the Milky Way. Solar System – the Sun and the objects that orbit it, including eight planets, the third planet closest to the Sun being Earth. Earth's orbit – path through which the Earth travels around the Sun. The average distance between the Earth and the Sun is 149.60 million kilometers (92.96 million miles).
The greatest depth is the Romanche Trench. (The Puerto Rico Trench is not part of the rift system.) Great Rift Valley. 6,000 km (3,700 mi) 220 km (140 mi) 2 km (1 mi) Width and depth are those of the Red Sea Rift, discounting continental shelves < 200 m deep. (These may not be the extremes of the whole rift system.)
Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion from the solar nebula. [4] [5] [6] Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen.
The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based on the estimated effects of several long-term influences. These include the chemistry at Earth 's surface, the cooling rate of the planet's interior, the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System, and a steady increase in the Sun's luminosity.