When Earth was a young planet, a large chunk of rock smashed into it, displacing a portion of Earth's interior. Some moons are bits of rock that were captured by a planet's gravity, but our Moon is likely the result of a collision billions of years ago. Some asteroids will be in a long вЂњdanceвЂќ with Earth as both orbit the Sun. They are typically trapped by Earth's gravity for a few months or years before returning to an orbit around the Sun. It stabilizes our planet's wobble, which has made the climate less variable over thousands of years.Д®arth sometimes temporarily hosts orbiting asteroids or large rocks. In many ways, the Moon is responsible for making Earth such a great home. Our Moon is the brightest and most familiar object in the night sky. When spring and fall begin, both hemispheres receive roughly equal amounts of heat from the Sun.Д®arth is the only planet that has a single moon. Six months later, the situation is reversed. Less direct solar heating produces winter in the south. With the Sun higher in the sky, solar heating is greater in the north producing summer there. During part of the year, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, and the southern hemisphere is tilted away. This tilt causes our yearly cycle of seasons. That day is called a leap day, and the year it's added to is called a leap year.Д®arth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.4 degrees with respect to the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun.

To keep our yearly calendars consistent with our orbit around the Sun, every four years we add one day. That extra quarter of a day presents a challenge to our calendar system, which counts one year as 365 days.

It takes 365.25 days to complete one trip around the Sun. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)ДЄs Earth orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 23.9 hours. It takes about eight minutes for light from the Sun to reach our planet.ДЄ 3D model of Earth, our home planet. This unit provides an easy way to quickly compare planets' distances from the Sun. With a radius of 3,959 miles (6,371 kilometers), Earth is the biggest of the terrestrial planets and the fifth largest planet overall.ДЇrom an average distance of 93 million miles (150 million kilometers), Earth is exactly one astronomical unit away from the Sun because one astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. To find out more visit our sister website,. Some of the features of our planet that make it great for sustaining life are changing due to the ongoing effects of climate change. Earth's vast oceans provided a convenient place for life to begin about 3.8 billion years ago. Most notably, Earth is unique in that most of our planet is covered in liquid water, since the temperature allows liquid water to exist for extended periods of time. However, the name Earth is a Germanic word, which simply means вЂњthe ground.вЂќД®arth has a very hospitable temperature and mix of chemicals that have made life abundant here. All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. The name Earth is at least 1,000 years old. Just slightly larger than nearby Venus, Earth is the biggest of the four planets closest to the Sun, all of which are made of rock and metal. While Earth is only the fifth largest planet in the solar system, it is the only world in our solar system with liquid water on the surface. Our home planet is the third planet from the Sun, and the only place we know of so far thatвЂ™s inhabited by living things.

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