Amazing Facts About Our Planet

One of the best ever creation of the universe is our mother earth she gave us many things but are greedy in exploiting her resources. Earth gives us all things but in return what we give nothing to it except loss and damage. Friends we tried to explore and exploit earth in many ways but still, we hardly know 10% about it. So here are some of the amazing facts which we are going to tell you about the earth which you might not be known.

1. The Earth is smoother than a billiard ball: Do you know? Maybe you’ve heard this statement: if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a billiard ball, it would actually be smoother than one. Third party image reference;
2. Plate Tectonics Keep the Planet Comfortable: Earth is the only planet in the Solar System with plate tectonics. Basically, the outer crust of the Earth is broken up into regions known as tectonic plates. These are floating on top of the magma interior of the Earth and can move against one another. When two plates collide, one plate will subduct, and where they pull apart, they will allow the fresh crust to form.
3. Earth is Almost a Sphere: Many people tend to think that the Earth is a sphere. In fact, between the 6th century BCE and the modern era, this remained the scientific consensus. But thanks to modern astronomy and space travel, scientists have since come to understand that the Earth is actually shaped like a flattened sphere. Even though the tallest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest, the feature that’s furthest from the center of the Earth is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
4. Earth-Doesn't Take 24 Hours to Rotate on its Axis: It actually takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds for the Earth to rotate once completely on its axis, which astronomer refer to as a Sidereal Day. Now wait for a second, doesn’t that mean that a day is 4 minutes shorter than we think it is? You’d think that this time would add up, day by day, and within a few months, the day would be night, and night would be the day. But remember that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Every day, the Sun moves compared to the background stars by about 1° – about the size of the Moon in the sky. And so, if you add up that little motion from the Sun that we see because the Earth is orbiting around it, as well as the rotation on its axis, you get a total of 24 hours.
5. A year on Earth isn’t 365 days: It’s actually 365.2564 days. It’s this extra .2564 days that creates the need for a Leap Year once every four years. That’s why we tack on an extra day in February every four years – 2004, 2008, 2012, etc. The exceptions to this rule are if the year in question is divisible by 100 (1900, 2100, etc.) unless it divisible by 400 (1600, 2000, etc.).
6. The largest living organism in the world is a fungus: Coral is the largest living structure, but it's actually made up of many individual organisms. The largest single living thing, though, is the honey fungus, or pinky. The largest single organism covers 3.4 square miles and is thousands of years old. It's edible, but it's also considered a pest, causing serious problems to nearby plants and trees.
7. There Are Not 24 Hours In a Day: People often claim there aren't enough hours in the day and they're right – not even 24. That's right; the actual time it takes the planet to rotate on its axis is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This is what's called a sidereal day. The solar day, the time it takes for the sun to return to the same spot on the meridian, varies as much as 16 minutes throughout the year, due to the position in its orbit.
8. Earth Had a Twin Planet Called Theia: Scientists now believe that we were once not alone in our orbit around the Sun – we had a “twin” planet we call Theia, which was the size of Mars and was 60 degrees either in front or behind our Big Blue Ball. One afternoon about 4.533 billion years ago, Theia crashed into the Earth; most of the planet was absorbed, but a large chunk blew off and combined with materials from our planet to create the Moon.
9. The Oceans are over 90% Unexplored: So we've (allegedly) been to the Moon and to Mars, but guess what? We have barely begun to visit the depth of our vast oceans. In fact, less than 10% of the deep blue seas have been explored. The ocean contains 97% of our water and 99% of the living area. While we have identified 212,906 marine species, there are possibly 25 million more than we DON'T know about. Suddenly, the Loch Ness Monster doesn't seem so far-fetched.
10. Highest Point on Earth Is Not Mount Everest: True, it's one of the most famous mountains in the world, and at 29,035 ft. above sea level, it's pretty darn tall. However, considering we now know that the Earth is not round anyone or anything along the equator is slightly closer to the stars. This means that although Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is just 20,564 ft. above sea level, because it is on this “bump” it is technically further away from the Earth's center (i.e. “higher”) than Everest by 1.5 miles!