Earth: Facts About Our Planet

By Adam Mann - Live Science Contributor November 01, 2019

Reference Article: Basic facts about planet Earth.

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Earth from space.

(Image: © NASA/JPL)

The Earth is our home, the only place in the universe where we know for certain that life exists.
Earth formed a bit over 4.5 billion years ago from a swirling cloud of gas and dust that gave rise
to our entire solar system, including our star, the sun. According to scientists' best theories, this
gas and dust collapsed into a disk, with different parts of the disk coalescing into each of the
planets in our solar system.
Where is Earth?
Our planet sits in a small corner of the Milky Way galaxy, 25,000 light-years from the galactic
center and 25,000 light-years away from the rim, according to Universe Today. Our solar system
is situated on a minor arm called the Orion-Cygnus arm, which branches off from the Sagittarius
arm, one of the galaxy's two major spiral arms.