Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system, and the third farthest from the sun.
The Earth is 150 million kilometers from the sun.
Planet Earth is distinguished from all other planets in our solar system by many advantages, including the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere and liquid water on its surface, both of which are the most important elements of life.
It is therefore not surprising that the Earth is the only planet that harbors living organisms.
What are the components of life on planet Earth?
Oxygen represents 21% of the atmosphere, while nitrogen represents 78%.
Other gases, such as carbon dioxide and argon, represent only 1% of the atmosphere.
The atmosphere affects the Earth's climate in the long run, and protects us from harmful radiation from the sun.
It also works to protect us from meteorites, most of which burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the Earth's surface.
Water covers about 71% of the Earth's surface, whether in the form of liquid or ice, because temperatures allow water to exist in its liquid form for long periods of time.
Water is found everywhere on the planet, in rivers, oceans, ice and living organisms, in the air and clouds, and even in the underground.
In fact, the vast oceans on Earth's surface provided opportunities for the emergence of living things about 3.8 billion years ago.
According to a report by the World Bank, saline water represents 97% of the total water on the Earth's surface, while fresh water represents only 3% of the water on the Earth's surface.
Most of the fresh water is frozen in ice sheets, glaciers, or in aquifers.
Fresh water that is easily accessible to meet our needs represents only 1% of the water on the Earth's surface.
Rainwater plays an indispensable role in the water cycle on the Earth's surface.
What is the history of the origin of the Earth?
Since the oldest rocks on the Earth's surface have been damaged by interactions between tectonic plates or exposed to erosion and weathering factors, scientists have determined the age of the Earth compared to the age of the solar system, assuming that the Earth and other inanimate bodies in the solar system were formed at the same time.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the age of the Earth, and therefore the Solar System, is 4.54 billion years, while the age of our Milky Way galaxy ranges between 11 and 13 billion years.
Scientists believe that the Earth, like all the planets in the solar system, began in the form of a disk of dust and gas revolving around the sun.
Then rock masses were formed by the forces of gravity, and their size gradually increased until they became asteroids.
Then the protoplanets formed after asteroids collided with each other.
What is the size of the Earth?
The diameter of the Earth, according to NASA, is 12,756 km.
Note that the diameter of the Earth at the equator is slightly different from its diameter at the poles, because the Earth is not completely spherical, but rather oval.
The mass of the Earth is 5.9722 x 1024 kilograms, and its surface area is 510 million and 64 thousand and 472 square kilometers.
The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 40 million and 30 thousand and two kilometers.
Some still believe that the Earth is flat despite the clear and detailed images (Al-Jazeera)
What is the geographical distribution of the population on planet Earth?
The population of the Earth, according to the United Nations Population Fund UNFPA, is about 7.8 billion, of whom 65% are in the age group from 15 to 64 years.
According to the statistics website, Statista, 60% of the world's population, or about 4.3 billion people, lives in the Asia-Pacific region, 17.51% in Africa, and 9.77% in Europe.
The share of Latin America and the Caribbean Islands in the population does not exceed 8.37%.
China is the most populous country, with a population of 1.42 billion, followed by India with 1.35 billion.
According to the "Our world in Data" website, 4.75 billion people, or 62% of the world's population, are concentrated in 13 countries, namely China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Ethiopia and the Philippines.
The summit of Mount Chimborazo is the closest point on Earth to the stars (Getty Images)
What are longitude and latitude?
Imaginary horizontal lines called latitudes pass through the Earth, which are parallel lines drawn on maps and globes.
Each line is about 110 kilometers away from the other.
The latitude at point zero is called the equator.
Imaginary vertical lines called meridians also pass across the Earth, but the meridians are not parallel.
The lines of longitude meet at the poles, and diverge to the greatest extent at the equator, where the Earth appears flat.
How is the Earth's rotation?
The Earth revolves around an imaginary axis that passes from the North Pole to the South Pole, and the Earth's rotation on its axis takes 23 thousand and 934 hours.
In conjunction with its rotation on its axis, the Earth revolves around the Sun, and a complete revolution around the Sun takes 365 days and a quarter of a day.
This extra quarter explains the existence of the leap year, as a day is added to the year every 4 years until the annual calendar coincides with the Earth's revolution around the sun.
The globe consists of 4 main layers that start with the inner core and its temperature is 5400 degrees Celsius (Getty Images)
What is the shape of the globe?
The shape of the Earth is still a subject of controversy in the 21st century, despite the numerous and clear images of the globe taken by spacecraft from space.
While some assert that the Earth is flat, Greek philosophers have proven since 500 BC, according to the website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Authority (NOAA), that the Earth is spherical.
Their theories confirmed the images taken by astronauts and satellites of the planet from heights that the Greek philosophers never dreamed of reaching.
But although the Earth appears spherical from space, in fact, according to the website of the National Oceanic Research Authority, it is closer to an oval shape than to a sphere.
The planet appears relatively flat at the equator, due to the centrifugal forces resulting from the Earth's permanent rotation.
What is the composition of the Earth?
The globe consists of 4 main layers, starting with the inner core of the Earth surrounded by the outer core, mantle, and crust.
The inner core consists of iron and nickel minerals, with a radius of 1221 km.
And the temperature at the inner core of the Earth is 5400 degrees Celsius.
As for the outer core layer that covers the inner core, its thickness is 2,300 km, and this layer consists of iron and nickel in liquid form.
Above the outer core of the Earth is the mantle, which is the thickest layer of the Earth, with a thickness of 2,900 km.
The mantle is made of a mixture of hot sticky molten rock.
The slow movement of rocks in the mantle causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and the emergence of mountain ranges.
Finally, it floats on the mantle layer of the Earth's crust, which is up to 30 kilometers deep.
The Earth's crust is thinner at the bottom of the oceans, its thickness may not exceed only 8 km.
The crust under the continents is made of granite and other light minerals, while it is made up of basalt at the bottom of the oceans.
The highest temperature ever recorded was recorded in Death Valley in the United States in 1913 (Getty Images)
What is the highest and lowest temperature ever recorded on the Earth's surface?
Last year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) sounded the alarm after the temperature in a Russian town on June 20, 2020, reached 38 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
In 2020 and 2021, a temperature of 54.4 degrees Celsius was recorded in California's Death Valley, which is famous for being the hottest region in the world.
On the island of Sicily, a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius was recorded.
And in 2012, the World Meteorological Organization reconsidered the record previously recorded in 1922 in the Aziziyah desert in Libya, which is 58 degrees Celsius, which has been the highest temperature recorded on Earth for decades.
The committee charged with verifying the validity of the measurement considered that it was not accurate for many reasons, including the insufficiency of the tools that were used to measure the temperature and the inexperience of the observer, and they assumed that he might have misrecorded the reading by an increase of about 7 degrees Celsius.
Currently, according to Guinness World records, the highest temperature ever recorded in the world is 56.7 degrees Celsius, which was recorded in Death Valley, California in 1913. In 1991, the lowest temperature ever recorded was in the Arctic Circle In the north, it is minus 69.9 degrees Celsius.
What is the name of the first ship that circled the globe?
In 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set out on his famous voyage to search for a western route into the spice-rich eastern Andes.
The ships of the expedition made their way across the Pacific Ocean, and Magellan discovered a strait in South America, later called the "Strait of Magellan" after the Portuguese explorer.
But Magellan was killed halfway in one of the Philippine islands by indigenous people.
Although Magellan was the mastermind of the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe, fate did not allow him to complete a full circumnavigation of the globe.
And the crews of the ships in the campaign resumed the voyage without him.
In 1522, one of the ships from the expedition reached Spain, and successfully completed a full round-the-world tour.
The captain of this "Victoria" was Juan Sebastian Ilanco, who took command of the expedition after Magellan's murder in 1521 on the way back to Spain.
In fact, Elanco is the first European to complete a full circle around the world.
But Elanco isn't the first person to complete a full round-the-world circuit.
Historians confirm that the first person to sail around the world is a Malaysian slave, Enrique, who was captured by Magellan from Malaysia in 1511, and he returned with him to Europe, then accompanied him as a translator in his expedition around the world.
Enrique and Magellan had previously traveled westward from Asia to Europe.
In other words, Enrique has traveled the world in length and breadth over the years and in several trips.
Hanging skeleton of the blue whale, the largest living creature on Earth (Getty Images)
What is the largest living organism on the back of the globe?
The blue whale, according to the World wildlife Fund (WWF), in Antarctica is the largest animal on the planet, weighing up to 400,000 tons and 98 feet long.
Its heart is the size of a small car.
It consumes up to 7,936 tons of krill per day.
The blue whale is also the loudest living creature on Earth, with a loudness of 188 decibels.
What is the heaviest substance in the earth?
Osmium is the heaviest metal on Earth.
This metal has twice the density of lead.
Each liter of osmium weighs 22.6 kilograms, while each liter of water weighs one kilogram.
What is the deepest and highest point on the Earth's surface?
The deepest point in the Earth's surface is located at the southern end of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, and it is called the Challenger Deep.
The depth of this point is 36,200 feet, or 11 thousand meters.
As for the highest point on Earth, it is, contrary to what most people think, not Mount Everest, but Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
This mountain, which is located near the equator, where the Earth appears relatively flat, its summit is the closest point in the Earth to the stars.
The highest mountain on Earth is Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, whose height exceeds 33,500 feet from base to summit.