Planet Earth Facts
Earth, our home planet, the third planet from the sun, is the only place in the known universe inhabited by living things. Our Earth facts for kids will give you lots of unique and interesting facts about our home planet.
Planet Earth is also known as the ‘Blue Planet’ because of the two-thirds of its surface is covered by saltwater oceans.
It is the fifth-largest planet in the solar system with a radius of 3,959 miles. It is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water on the surface.
Earth is the biggest of the four terrestrial planets i.e Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Venus, known as Earth Twins just slightly smaller than Earth. Terrestrial planet means, the planet which has hard rocky surface
Earth Quick Facts
Mass: 5,972,190,000,000,000 billion kg
Diameter: 12,756 km
Radius: 3,959 miles | 6,371 kilometers
Day; 23.9 hours
Year: 365.25 days
Known Moons: 1
Notable Moons: The Moon
Orbit Distance: 149,598,262 km (1 AU)
Orbit Period: 365.26 Earth days
Surface Temperature: -88 to 58° C
Planet Type: Terrestrial
FACT 1. The name Earth is a German word, which simply means the ground. It comes from the Old English words ‘eor(th)e’ and ‘ertha‘. In German it is ‘erde’.
FACT 2. Earth is the only planet not named after a god.
FACT 3. Earth is more than 4.5 billion year old.
FACT 4. A day on Earth is 24 hours. Earth makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Earth time) in 365 1/4 days.
FACT 5. That 6 extra hours means every four years (6 hrs/year * 4 yrs=24 hrs, means 1 day) we need to add one day to our calendar. That is called a leap day (in a leap year)
FACT 6. The Earth’s path around the Sun is called its orbit
FACT 7. Earth is at an average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the sun.
FACT 8. Earth has one moon but NO rings.
Related Article: Earth Day Quiz
FACT 9. As Earth is one of the four terrestrial planets, its surface is made up of the solid and dynamic surface of mountains, canyons, plains and more.
FACT 10. Earth as being made up of a number of layers i.e (Earth’s layer): the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core.
FACT 11. We live on the thin outer layer of the Earth that is Crust
FACT 12. The inner core of the Earth is hotter than the surface of the Sun
FACT 13. The atmosphere of Earth (layers of the atmosphere) has 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other ingredients—that makes it possible for living things to breathe easily and survive.
FACT 14. Laika was a Soviet space dog who became one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth. (Source en.wikipedia.org)
FACT 15. If we see our home planet from space, it looks so colorful i.e blue, white, brown, yellow and green. The blue is for water. The white swirls are clouds. The colors of brown, yellow and green are for the land. And the areas of white are ice and snow.
FACT 16. Earth shape is not a perfect sphere, because the middle of the Earth or the equator bulges out slightly due to the spin of the Earth.
FACT 17. Earth has seasons because its axis is tilted.
Visit NASA to know more earth facts for kids. Also dont forget to attempt the solar system quiz to test your knowledge.
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Animals Quiz
Solar System Quiz
Human Body Quiz
Physics Quiz
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