8 Fascinating Facts About Planet Earth

Planet Earth — the beautiful blue marble that has fascinated humanity since God created it. Why shouldn’t it fascinate us? In addition to being our home for now, and the place where life as we know it originated, it remains the only planet we know of where life thrives.

Psalm 24:1-2 says “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters,” but how much do you know about the planet?

Let’s see some fascinating Earth facts.

1. Earth is the third planet from the sun in our solar system. Its name comes from the old English and Germanic words meaning “the ground.”

2. Like all the planets, Earth orbits around the sun. And it does so at some serious speed –– around 30 kilometres per second!

3. It takes 365 days (one year) for the Earth to complete one full orbit.

4. Have you ever wondered why we have different seasons? God commanded it in Genesis 1:14 causing the Earth to tilt 23.4 degrees on its “axis,” an imaginary line straight through the middle of the planet from the North Pole to the South Pole. This means that different parts of the globe are tilted towards the sun at different times of the year (or at different times during its orbit).

5. Not only does Earth zoom through space, but it also spins on its axis. The result? We have daytime and nighttime! As the planet rotates, the side facing the sun receives daylight and the other is in darkness.

6. People often think of Earth as a gigantic sphere. But its shape is more like a squished ball that bulges out at the equator––an imaginary line around the middle of the planet, exactly between the North Pole and the South Pole. This ‘bulge’ is caused by the Earth’s spin and the effect of ‘gravity‘.

7. The Earth’s diameter (distance straight through the middle) measures a huge 12,800 kilometres, making it the fifth largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are even bigger!

8. Earth is the only planet in our solar system known to support life. This is because it has two very important things that living creatures need to survive – lots of oxygen and lots of water! Its distance from the sun means it’s not too hot and not too cold for creatures to live on, too.