EARTH STRUCTURE

AND COMPOSITION
LESSON 1 – TOPIC 2: GCE222
 EARTH

Earth is the planet we live on,

one of eight planets in
our solar system and the only
known place in
the universe to support life.
 ALL ABOUT EARTH
• Earth is the third planet from the sun, after Mercury and Venus, and before
Mars. It is about 150 million kilometers (about 93 million miles) from the
sun. This distance, called an astronomical unit (AU), is a standard unit of
measurement in astronomy. Earth is one AU from the sun. The planet
Jupiter is about 5.2 AU from the sun—about 778 million kilometers (483.5
million miles).
• Earth is the largest and most massive of the rocky inner planets, although it
is dwarfed by the gas giants beyond the Asteroid Belt. Its diameter is about
12,700 kilometers (7,900 miles), and its mass is about 5.97×1024 kilograms
(6.58×1021 tons).
• Earth is an oblate spheroid. This means it is spherical in shape, but not
perfectly round. It has a slightly greater radius at the Equator, the imaginary
line running horizontally around the middle of the planet. In addition to
bulging in the middle, Earth’s poles are slightly flattened.
• Earth has one natural satellite, the moon. Earth is the only planet in the solar
system to have one moon. Venus and Mercury do not have any moons, for
example, while Jupiter and Saturn each have more than a dozen.
 EARTH
• 150 MILLION KM/93 MILLION MILES FROM THE SUN
• ASTRONIMICAL UNIT (AU)
• EARTH IS 1AU FROM THE SUN
• 1AU = 150 MILLION KM/93 MILLION MILES
• DIAMETER = 12,700KM/ 7,900MILES; radius 6400km; 6350km
• MASS = 5.97X10^24KG / 6.58X10^24TONS
• EARTH IS AN OBLATE SPHEROID
• EARTH HAS ONE NATURAL SATTELITE - THE MOON
EARTH’S INTERIOR
35 -70 KM THICK or
22 -44MILES
 Four Spheres of Earth
• Magnetosphere
• Atmosphere
• Hydrosphere
• Lithosphere