Interesting Facts about Earth
15. The Earth was once believed to be the centre of the universe.
14. The international space station was the most expensive object ever constructed? ($150 billion!)
13. Magma is the hot liquid rock under the surface of the Earth, it is known as lava after it comes out of a volcano.
12. Earth isn't round. Centrifugal force pushes outwards at Earth's equator giving it a slight wasteline.
11. Earth is the only planet in the Solar System to have water in its three states of matter: as a solid (ice), a liquid (sea, rain, etc.) and as a gas (clouds).
10. Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
9. The word Earth comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Erda, which means “ground” or “soil” and is thought to be 1,000 years old.
8. Gravity changes across the surface of the Earth — so dieters might want to avoid the poles, where you weigh 0.5 percent more than at the equator.
7. The hardiest animal in existence is a tardigrade, and one can exist in a vacuum for ten days.
6. Hawaii is moving towards Japan at the speed of 10cm a year. This is because they are on different tectonic plates.
5. Standing on that equator you would be spinning around Earth's center at 1000 miles per hour. At the poles, however, you would be standing still (and turning in a circle).
4. Earth is almost five billion years old, although life (resembling life as we know it) has only existed on the planet for the last 150 million to 200 million years.
3. Earth is the fifth largest planet.
2. The actual time it takes the planet to rotate on its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds.
1. The oceans, which cover almost 71 percent of the Earth's surface, contain close to 20 million tons of gold.
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