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Jan 10, 2023 · The Planet Is 10,000 Times Older Than Humans. “Planet Earth has an estimated age of 4.5 billion years,” Jeremiah P. Ostricker, senior research scholar at Princeton University, tells Popular ...
- Lakes Can Explode. When we think of lakes, we usually think of tranquility and summers relaxing by them—not lethal explosions. But Africa has experienced just that sort of thing over the years, when bursts of volcanic gases rise to the surface, leaving destruction in their wake.
- Earth Used to Be Purple. At least, that's one scientific theory based on the idea that ancient microbes may have relied on a molecule called retinal, rather than chlorophyll, to absorb the sun's rays.
- 60 Tons of Cosmic Dust Fall to Earth Daily. "Cosmic dust" sounds magical, but chances are you've inhaled a good amount of it just on your way to work. On a daily basis, dust from meteorites, comets, and other solar bodies fall to earth in tiny particles that increase the levels of sodium and iron in the planet's atmosphere.
- The Oceans Hold $771 Trillion Worth of Gold. Not that you'd be able to get at any of it. But scientists estimate that the oceans of the world contain approximately 20 million tons of gold.
- Earth’s non-mythological Etymology Is Unique Among Planets.
- The Word Earth Derives from The Old English Word Eorþe.
- Earth Is One Astronomical Unit Away from The Sun.
- The Oldest Existing Maps of Earth Are Thousands of Years old.
- One Early Map May Be Carved Into A Mammoth Tusk.
- Jigsaw Puzzles Were Originally Just Chopped Up Maps.
- The Oldest Surviving World Map Is The Babylonian World Map.
- Mercator Projection Maps Are Especially Suited For Sailing.
- Greenland May Be Considerably Smaller Than You Think.
- Some See Political Statements in Cartographic choices.
Earth is the only planet in our solar system that doesn’t get its name from Greek or Roman mythology.
Eorþe means “ground, soil, dry land.” The same term was also used to differentiate between our domain, the underworld, and the heavens. This was before our modern conception of planets. The fact that we needed a way to refer to our planet before we even really figured out what a planet is probably helps account for the murky history around the word...
That’s not some great coincidence—historically, an astronomical unit was just the average distance from the Earth to the sun. It gave scientists a shorthand for communicating distances. New York to California is about .00003 astronomical units.
Mapshave been around for a long time. The oldest surviving maps are thousands of years old; there’s thought to be a map of the stars found in the Lascaux caves of France that dates back to 14,500 BCE.
There also might be a map of local landscape features of what is now the Czech Republic carved into a mammoth tusk that dates back to 25,000 BCE. The key is “might be,” because it can be a bit tricky, when looking at millennia-old carved tusks, to differentiate between abstract drawings and intentionally plotted maps. But there are proponents of th...
When they were invented around 1760, jigsaw puzzles were used to teach kids about geography, fitting the various countries together in order to make a map of the world (or, more commonly, just Europe).
The earliest surviving map of the world is the Babylonian World Map, which dates back to the 6th century BCE. The clay tablet contains a labeled depiction of the known world, centered around the Euphrates River. It’s currently housed in the British Museum.
The Babylonian World Map wasn’t very accurate, but even modern maps aren’t perfect—far from it. The common map we all probably have in our heads is based on the Mercator projection. This map preserves the shape of land masses, but stretches the area of regions closer to the poles. It’s been the standard model of maps for centuries, but it’s mainly ...
Because of the size distortion of Mercator projections, certain countries like Greenland are depicted as being massive. If you picture Greenland in your head, it’s probably almost the size of Africa—but in reality, Greenland is about the size of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 14 Greenlands could fit inside of Africa. The Mercator proje...
Some see an implicit political statement arising from these distortions. When Boston public schools decided to stop purchasing Mercator projection maps for their classrooms, an official framed it as part of an effort to move past what they saidwas a “view that is very Eurocentric.” A more full-throated criticismcomes from Marianne Franklin, profess...
People also ask
What are some interesting facts about Earth?
Why is Earth so weird?
What is the biggest living thing on Earth?
How old is Earth?
- The Planet’s Poles Flip. We all know that North is, well, north—somewhere above Alaska—and south is down near the middle of Antarctica. That will always be true for the planet’s geographic poles, but it’s only intermittently true for the planet’s magnetic poles.
- It Has a Supersized Moon. Sunday evening marked the most recent rising of the supermoon, but regardless of how large Earth’s moon appears in the sky on any given night, it’s always among the solar system’s most overgrown satellites.
- The Biggest Mammal Migration Is Airborne. Yep, you may have thought the 1.3 million wildebeest that hoof their way between Kenya and Tanzania were tops, but you’d be wrong.
- It Hosts a Humongous Fungus. When it comes to the biggest living things on Earth, it might be easy to think about blue whales, elephants, and trees. You may even recall that coral reefs are the largest conglomerates of critters.
The Earth is approximately 4.543 billion years old. The Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing, about 17 milliseconds per hundred years. The world’s largest country by land area is Russia, and the smallest is Vatican City. There are approximately 195 countries in the world today. Earth has a powerful magnetic field.
May 1, 2024 · One of the biggest of these mind blowing things about Earth is the fact that it's more than 4.5 billion years old. Then about 3.8 billion years ago, single cell organisms were born. About 230 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth until they died and were replaced by early humans about 200,000 years ago. That's a lot of history.
Death Valley is the hottest place on Earth. What might surprise you more is the fact that it is also the lowest elevation point in America. Other surprising facts include its proclivity for wildflowers and the fact that its rocks can move on their own. 8. Earth Is a Currently an “Icehouse”.
