Earth

Earth - Rotating Model
Credit: Almond/NASA

Earth is the third planet out from the Sun and home to many species of flora and fauna, including humans. It is the only planet known to have life on it.

It has a significant atmosphere, which is composed primarily of Nitrogen (78%) and Oxygen (21%) gases. Around 70% of the surface of Earth is covered in liquid water.

The rotational axis of Earth tilts around 23° to the plane of the Solar System, and this gives rise to the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

It has one large natural rocky satellite, called the Moon, which orbits once every 27.3 days. The Moon is the fifth largest natural satellite (or moon) in the Solar System.

Planet Data Sheet show »

Facts and Figures	Mercury	Venus	Earth	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn	Uranus	Neptune
Orbital Distance (AU)¹	0.38	0.72	1.0	1.52	5.2	9.45	19.2	30.06
Radius (KM)	2,440	6,052	6,378	3,397	71,492	60,268	25,559	24,746
Mass (Earth Masses)²	0.055	0.82	1.0	0.11	318	95.2	14.5	17.1
Year Length (Earth Days)	88	225	365.25	687	11.9 Years	29.45 Years	84.0 Years	164.8 Years
Day Length (Earth Days)	176	117	1.0	1.03	0.41	0.43	0.75	0.67
Surface Gravity (g)³	0.38	0.91	1.0	0.38	2.34	0.93	0.92	1.12
Surface Temperature	-200 to 400 °C	460 °C	-80 to 50 °C	-150 to 20 °C	-110 °C	-140 °C	-190 °C	-200 °C
Number of moons	0	0	1	2	63	60	27	13

Notes: ¹ 1 AU (or Astronomical Unit) = 149,600,000 KM and is the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun
² 1 Earth Mass = 5,980,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 KG : ³ 1 g = 9.8 m/s²

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Factfile: Gravity