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Around 4.5 billion years ago, a cloud of dust and gas known as a nebula collapsed to form a hot star. Through gravity, it attracted all the surrounding matter and created a large rotating disk around its center.
After numerous collisions, the matter revolving around the young sun eventually formed massive celestial bodies with strong central gravitational forces. These bodies turned into planets. Inside each planet, gravity pulled all matter towards its core, explaining the spherical shape of planets.
As our current Earth is spherical, its gravitational pull is consistent all over its surface. This means that as long as you’re on a flat surface, you will stand straight and tall.
Now, imagine Earth with six faces, but none of them fascinating. This is because, wherever you go, you would feel as though you’re walking uphill. On a square Earth, the strongest gravitational force would be at the center of each face. Thus, the farther you move from the center, the stronger the pull you’d feel. It would be difficult to maintain an upright posture.
The landscapes along Earth’s edges would be barren and desolate, as all water would accumulate towards the center of each face. The atmosphere along the edges and corners of the square Earth would be too thin to support life, or might not even exist. We’ll delve into that further.
The new climate would depend on Earth’s rotation. If our square planet rotated about an axis passing through its square sides, the climate would resemble today’s Earth but more extreme.
The top and bottom faces would be polar regions, while the remaining four faces would experience tropical climates. However, if Earth rotated around an axis through its corners, each face would have a milder climate. You might not encounter extreme temperatures or heavy rainfall. Yet, this would mean bidding farewell to the wonderful equatorial world.
An advantage would be easier access to outer space. Since our atmosphere is held by gravity and, in this scenario, gravity pulls from the center of each square face, the atmosphere would be denser where the gravity is strongest and thinner towards the edges.
Additionally, if Earth’s square volume equaled its current spherical volume, its sharp corners would extend beyond the atmosphere. These regions would lack protection and thus would be uninhabitable.
Interesting Facts About Earth
Earth is the only planet in the solar system with tectonic plates. The outer layer of Earth’s surface is divided into segments called tectonic plates. These segments shift within the Earth’s mantle and can migrate to other planets. When two plates collide, one is pushed beneath the other, and where they separate, new crust is formed.
This process serves crucial purposes. It not only reshapes the surface and drives geological activities like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mountain formation, and oceanic trenching, but it’s also vital for carbon cycling. When tiny oceanic organisms die, they sink to the deep ocean floor.
Over time, life remnants, a significant amount of carbon, are carried back down into Earth’s interior and recycled. This process regulates the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, ensuring that we don’t experience runaway greenhouse effects, such as those occurring on Venus and potentially Mars.
Earth’s Similarity to a Sphere
It’s widely believed that Earth is a perfect sphere, but this was only scientifically accepted in the mid-6th century BCE. Modern astronomy and space exploration have revealed that Earth is more like an oblate spheroid, slightly flattened at the poles and bulging around the equator.
This bulge is due to the motion of the planets. This means the distance from one pole to the other is about 43 km shorter than the diameter through the equator. While Mount Everest’s peak is the highest point on Earth’s surface, the highest point from Earth’s center is the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
Earth’s Composition is Mostly Iron, Oxygen, and Silicon
Analyzing the materials that compose Earth, you’ll find 32.1% iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and 13.9% magnesium. Much of the iron is concentrated in Earth’s core. In fact, research suggests Earth’s core contains 88% iron, while the outer crust comprises 47% oxygen.
70% of Earth’s Surface is Water
Early space travelers, observing Earth from afar, nicknamed our planet the “Blue Planet.” This is understandable, as 70% of our planet is covered by water, while the remaining 30% constitutes solid landmasses. This is why Earth is often referred to as the “continental crust.”
Earth’s Atmosphere Extends Up to 10,000 km
Earth’s atmosphere is thickest within the first 50 km from the surface, but it extends approximately 10,000 km into space. Earth comprises five primary atmospheric layers: the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, and the exosphere. According to the law of pressure and density decrease, as atmospheric pressure decreases higher up, density becomes thinner.
Earth’s Molten Iron Core Generates a Magnetic Field
Earth behaves like a colossal bar magnet with two poles located near its geographical poles. The magnetic field extends thousands of kilometers beyond Earth’s surface, creating a region known as the “magnetosphere.” Scientists believe this magnetic field is generated by Earth’s molten outer core, where heat creates convective motions of conductive materials that induce electric currents.
Let’s focus on the magnetosphere. Without it, solar wind particles from the sun would strike Earth’s surface directly, exposing our planet to high levels of radiation. Instead, the solar wind bends around Earth due to the magnetic field, shielding us from much of the harm. Scientists have also hypothesized that Mars’ thin atmosphere could be due to a weaker magnetosphere compared to Earth’s, allowing solar wind to slowly erode its atmosphere.
Earth Completes a Rotation in Just Under 24 Hours
In reality, Earth completes a full rotation in about 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. Astronomers call this a “sidereal day.” This doesn’t mean our day would be shortened by four minutes. The extra time accumulates over days and months, making days and nights out of sync.
A Year on Earth is Not Exactly 365 Days
In reality, a year on Earth is approximately 365.2564 days. The fractional 0.2564 days result in a leap year every four years. That’s why every four years, an extra day is added to February, like in 2004, 2008, 2012, and so on. There’s an exception to this rule when a year is divisible
Earth has one Moon and two additional satellites sharing its orbit.
As you are aware, Earth possesses a single Moon. However, our planet also accommodates two other celestial bodies that share an orbit around Earth. They are known as 3753 Cruithne (an asteroid from the main asteroid belt revolving around the Sun) and 2002 AA29 (a near-Earth object on the verge of becoming Earth’s quasi-satellite). The majority of these small celestial bodies are referred to as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).
Earth stands as the solitary planet harboring life.
Scientists have conducted research regarding potential habitable zones beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Titan. However, to date, Earth remains the sole planet known to support life.