Our planet Earth is extraordinary and perfect. Few realize this fact. We easily destroy the benefits it provides us. We live as if we will never die, or else we loot with fists full without caring what will happen to the Earth after we are gone.
In the section we will tell you some interesting facts about the planet Earth - our home planet.
Thanks to earthquake processes Earth is a welcoming place to live in
At first glance, this statement sounds strange and absurd. Everyone is afraid of earthquakes. We are used to calling them by apocalyptic names - "disaster", "horror", "god's punishment".
But thanks to the tectonic plates and their movement, the Earth is such a cozy place to live. The processes of tectonic plate movement cause dead organisms to fall into the bowels of the Earth, as well as onto the ocean floor. This is how the carbon cycle is stimulated.
Over a long period of time, these carbon-rich remains of living organisms are returned to the Earth's interior to be recycled. This process "pulls" carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, protecting it from the greenhouse effect that destroyed the atmosphere of Venus, for example.
Venus has no tectonic activity and these recycling mechanisms are not inherent to it. If Earth overheats due to carbon, its fate will be similar to that of Venus.
But it's good that there is the geological activity of our planet, which, however disastrous it may seem to us sometimes with all its earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and ocean formations, protects us and gives us life.
The earth is not quite round
Many people think the Earth is perfectly round because that's how they're used to seeing it. In fact, it is not quite spherical. The methods of modern astronomy and space travel have allowed scientists to prove that the Earth is not a perfect sphere, but is flattened at the poles and slightly inflated at the equator.
Earth is mainly composed of iron, oxygen and silicon
If the Earth could be conditionally divided into its constituent elements, the largest share falls on iron - 32.1%, oxygen - 30.1%, silicon - 15.1% and magnesium - 13.9 %. The largest part of iron is found in the core of the Earth, deep in its bowels.
Scientists suggest that if, hypothetically, someone could go down and take a sample of the core, it would be made up of approximately 88% liquid iron. Samples from the earth's crust would contain about 47% oxygen.
70% of the earth's surface is covered by water
When the astronauts first managed to go beyond the boundaries of our planet, they found that its glow was mostly blue, not green, as they expected. Its surface is mainly composed of water basins - about 70% of its surface. Earth's dry land occupies the remaining 30%.
Earth's atmosphere extends approximately 10 thousand km high
Earth's atmosphere is densest in the first 50 km from the Earth's surface. With distance from the earth's crust, its density gradually decreases, but even at more than 10 thousand kilometers there is still some atmosphere, although very rarefied.
The earth does not rotate on its axis in exactly 24 hours
We are used to living in a 24-hour day. We know that's how long it takes the Earth to make one complete rotation on its own axis. In fact, it takes her 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to make one full revolution.
A year does not last 365 days
To be precise, a year lasts 356.2564 days. That's why we have to have a leap year every 4 years to compensate for this difference.
Earth has one natural satellite, the Moon, but also two other satellites
The only natural satellite of the Earth is the Moon. Our planet also has two other satellites that follow it in its non-stop "walk" in space. These are two asteroids attracted by the Earth's gravitational field. They don't have names, just numbers.
Earth is the only planet known to man that has life
This statement is a fact, regardless of whether some people disagree. Whether life exists somewhere in the universe we cannot know. What we have been able to study so far shows that we have not yet encountered a planet with living and reproducing organisms.
Evidence of water has been found on Mars and Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Scientists do not exclude the possibility of life under the icy surface of Europa - one of the moons of Jupiter. But so far, direct evidence of life on another known planet has not been found.
And that makes us really happy!
Photos: iStock
