Earth

From TinWiki.org

Earth

Earth is one of the inner planets orbiting the Sun, a star quite far out in the Milky Way galaxy. Of the planets in the solar system, Earth is the third closest to the Sun.

1 Surface
2 Orbital Seasons
3 Natural Satellite
4 Notes
5 Also On tinWiki
6 ATS Discussion Threads
7 External Sources

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Surface

Most of this globe is covered by oceans. Dry land is broken up and consists in part of islands. At some point in time, dry land supposedly was almost one single piece, termed Pangea.

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Orbital Seasons

Hanging in the balance between the Sun's gravitational force and the centrifugal force of the planet's revolving, Earth is tilted on its orbital axis, causing the northern parts and the southern parts of the planet to alternatively be turned farther away from and closer towards its star. The tilt causes yearly seasons except for in the areas around the equator which keeps a relatively steady angle on the Sun.

The orbit around the Sun takes approximately 365 days, one day being the time the planet takes to spin once on its own axis. One day is approximately 24 hours.

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Natural Satellite

Moon

Earth has one moon, usually simply called the Moon. The moon, because of its gravitational force, affects the planet by for example causing tides in the Earth's ocean as it orbits.

Seen from Earth, the amount of Sun light that is reflected from the Moon changes through an approximately 30 day long cycle, called a month, where the waxing and waning of the viewable reflected light goes from complete lack of reflection seen, to the whole visible side of the Moon showing reflected Sun light, then called a "full moon".

The Moon orbits Earth in such a way that the same side is always facing the planet. Because of its comparative smallness to the Sun being matched by its comparative closeness to the Earth, the Moon appears approximately the same size as the Sun. Earth's moon is relatively large in comparison to the size of its planet, so much so that it is sometimes said the Earth and Moon could almost be called a double planet, as opposed to a planet and a moon.

Because of some of its traits, there are some people who speculate that the Moon is really not a natural satellite but an artificial, constructed body.[1]

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