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| | {{Planet|image=Blue Marble.jpg | | {{Planet|image=Blue Marble.jpg |
| − | |symbol=Earth symbol.svg
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| − | |order=3
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| − | |primary=Sun
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| − | |periapsis=147,090,000 km (0.983 AU)<ref name=earthfact>"[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html Earth Fact Sheet]," [[NASA]], April 19, 2007. Accessed May 2, 2008.</ref>
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| − | |apoapsis=152,100,000 km (1.017 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |semimajor=149,597,886.5 km (1.00000011 AU)<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |bode=1.0 AU
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| − | |eccentricity=0.01671022<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |sidereal=365.256366 da<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |synodic=365.256366 da
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| − | |orbitspeed=29.783 km/s<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |inclination=0°
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| − | |reference=the ecliptic
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| − | |siderealday=23.9345 h<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |solarday=24 h<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |rotatespeed=465.11 m/s
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| − | |axialtilt=23.439281°
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| − | |mass=5.9736 * 10<sup>24</sup> kg<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |density=5,515.3 kg/m³<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |surfacegrav=9.780327 m/s²
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| − | |escapespeed=11.186 km/s
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| − | |meanradius=6371 km<ref>http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm</ref><ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |equatorradius =6378.135 km<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |polarradius =6356.750 km<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |surfacearea=510,065,600 km²
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| − | |landarea=148,939,100 km²
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| − | |waterarea=361,126,400 km²
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| − | |mintemp=185 K
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| − | |meantemp=287 K
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| − | |maxtemp=331 K
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| − | |moons=1
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| − | |composition=Rock
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| − | |albedo=0.37<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |mfd=0.3076 G<ref name=earthfact/>
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| − | |pmdm=7.98 * 10<sup>22</sup> N-m/T<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
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| − | |cmdm=1.41 * 10<sup>24</sup> N-m/T<ref name=Humphreys>Humphreys, D. R. "[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/21/21_3/21_3.html The Creation of Planetary Magnetic Fields]." ''Creation Research Society Quarterly'' 21(3), December 1984. Accessed April 29, 2008.</ref>
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| − | |mdt=2049 a<ref name=Humphreys/>
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| − | |mhl=1420 a<ref name=calc/>
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| | }} | | }} |
| − | The '''Earth''' is the only known [[planet]] in our '''Solar System''' which can support [[life]]. It contains [[water]], reasonable levels of [[oxygen]], and a stable [[temperature]] range. Geometrically speaking, Earth is the largest of the terrestrial (rocky) planets in the [[solar system]].
| + | Mostly Harmless. |
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| − | ==Physical Description==
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| − | Within the [[solar system]], Earth is the third planet from the [[Sun]]. It is approximately 8,000 miles (13,000 km) in diameter, which means that its equatorial circumference (measured around the equator) is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers), and the polar circumference is slightly less at 24,809 miles (40,008 km).<ref>http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm</ref> The reason its metric circumference is so close to the "round number" of 40,000 is that the [[kilometer]] was defined (by the French) as 1/10,000th the distance from the equator to the [[North Pole]].
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| − | Its surface area is approximately 4·π (4000 mi)<sup>2</sup> = 200 million square miles (510 million km<sup>2</sup>). It has been said that Earth should really be called "water", as the larger part of it—about 70%—is covered by water. In fact, the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] and [[Indian Ocean|Indian]] oceans alone cover about half of the Earth's surface.
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| − | The Earth orbits at an average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the Sun in an almost circular orbit. The plane of this orbit, or '''ecliptic''', is the common reference plane for the inclinations of the orbits of all [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s in the [[Solar System]], though in fact Earth's orbit is inclined 7.25° to the plane of the [[Sun]]'s equator. It takes light (and other forms of electromagnetic radiation) approximately 500 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth, i.e. the distance can also be stated as "500 light-seconds." The distance to nearby stars is made by measuring the stellar [[parallax]] between observations when the earth is at opposite ends of its orbit, so the earth's orbit itself is a measuring stick for astronomical distances, and is known as the ''astronomical unit'' (A. U.) It is worth noting that if the Earth were slightly closer to the Sun, it would be too hot for life while if Earth were slightly further away from the Sun, water would freeze and life would be impossible.
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| − | ==Origin==
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| − | People disagree about when and how the Earth was created. The three most popular ideas are:
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| − | #That God created the Earth several hundred generations ago, as recounted in [[Genesis]]. By adding years and other time indications in the [[Old Testament]] chronologies, one can calculate the age of the Earth as approximately 6,000 years (see [[Date of creation]] and [[Young Earth Creationism]]).
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| − | #That God created the Earth billions of years ago (see [[Old Earth Creationism]] and [[Theistic Evolution]]).
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| − | #That the Earth came into existence billions of years ago (approximately 4.5 billion years in modern estimates), but entirely through natural processes and without any intervention by God.
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| − | Clashes between adherents of these ideas have gone on since time immemorial (see [[origins debate]]), though the last theory has only matured in the last 200 years.
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| − | == Young Earth Creationist view ==
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| − | ===Formation and Age===
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| − | Young Earth creationists believe, on the basis of the biblical account in Genesis and biblical geochronologies, that the entire Earth, including animal, plant, and human life, was formed in six days, around 4000 B.C.
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| − | Mainstream scientific journals, committed to a [[naturalism|naturalistic]] worldview, contend this view.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0822sternberg.asp 1</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/538.asp 2</ref><ref>http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53400 3</ref><ref>http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3833&program=DI%20Main%20Page%20-%20News&callingPage=discoMainPage 4</ref>
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| − | Most scientists believe believe that the Earth formed by natural processes instead of being supernaturally created. However, as one scientist noted, “... most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.” <ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref>
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| − | === Magnetosphere ===
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| − | Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field powerful enough to prevent most of the sun's radiation from striking the earth and harming the life on it. This field has been decaying at a known exponential rate, as decades of recordkeeping reveal. In 1984, Dr. Russell Humphreys developed a model for the creation of magnetic fields<ref name=Humphreys/> that suggests that the earth was at first made entirely of water<ref>See {{Bible ref|book=II_Peter|chap=3|verses=5}}</ref>, much of which God transmuted into other elements after He made the earth, probably on Day 3 of creation. Humphreys' predicted magnetic decay time for the earth agrees well with published data and thus constitutes further evidence for a young earth.
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| − | ===Shape of the Earth===
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| − | Some people dispute the shape of the earth, saying that according to the Bible, the earth is flat rather than spherical (presumably square, given that it is described as having "four corners" (Revelations 7:1)). However, no credible organization has ever expressed support for this theory.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/crea-fe.htm</ref> Some have disputed the idea that the earth rotates around the sun.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm</ref>
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| − | In [[Book of Revelations|Revelations]] 7:1 it is stated:
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| − | "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth..." (Revelations 7:1)
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| − | A sphere has no corners. The four corners are also mentioned in Isaiah 11:12. This is often accepted to be a figure of speech.
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| − | It is also stated:
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| − | "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." ([[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] 2:35)
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| − | AND
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| − | "Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:" (Daniel 4:10-11)
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| − | AND
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| − | "Behold, [Jesus] cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Revelations 1:7)
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| − | AND
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| − | "Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [cosmos] in their glory." ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 4:8)
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| − | Apologist [[JP Holding]]'s take on this is that this may have been a vision. <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/earthshape.html#globe</ref>
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| − | ==Christianity and the Earth==
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| − | ===Christian Historical-Grammatical Bible Exegesis or Bible Literalism===
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| − | According to [[Creation Ministries International]], most young earth creationists use a [[hermeneutic]] "best described as the [[Historical-grammatical exegesis|historical-grammatical method]] in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref> Creation Ministries International further states that "Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/</ref>
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| − | Bible scholars have estimated the age of the earth based on the Creation account in Genesis and the genealogical accounts in Numbers and other books of the Pentateuch. One famous estimate was published in 1650 by [[James Ussher|James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh]] in a book called ''Annals of the World,'' in which he estimated the Creation to have occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. Other Biblical scholars maintain that there are possible gaps in the genealogies, often using the ideas of the 19th century Calvinist theologian [[Benjamin Warfield]] on the issue. <ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/primeval_chronology.shtml</ref> However, [[James Barr]], regius professor of Hebrew at [[Oxford University]], wrote in 1984 the following: "… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: … the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.’" <ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1606/</ref> Furthermore, it should be noted that Barr himself rejects supernatural Christianity, and so is not a priori biased in favor of creationism. <ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/pca_creation_study_committee_report.shtml</ref>
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| − | Many [[Christian|Christians]] believe that the Earth is the perfect distance away from the Sun and take this to be evidence of [[God]]'s existence. <ref>http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html</ref> Secular scientists, however, reject this reasoning using the anthropic principle<ref>http://www.anthropic-principle.com</ref>.
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| − | ===Christian Non-Literalism===
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| − | Many mainstream Christian denominations believe the story of Genesis is not meant to be read literally, and believe that the age of the Earth is on the order of millions or billions of years, not thousands of years. <ref>http://webusers.xula.edu/cporter/2000n/evolution_and_religion.htm</ref>
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| − | ===Scientific Uniformitarianism===
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| − | Uniformitarian scientists believe that the earth is beyond 4 billion years old.<ref>http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html</ref> They also refute that the Earth is only 6,000 years old by quoting older human societies dated by their dating method as older than that.<ref>http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/</ref>
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| − | == Naturalistic view ==
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| − | Estimates by uniformitarian geologists of the age of the Earth and the beginning of life give about 4.55 billion years and 3.5 billion years ago respectively. These estimates are primarily based on radioactive dating of meteorites and fossil specimens. Most scientists today conclude that the Earth formed by natural processes, specifically by the accumulation of debris orbiting the sun billions of years in the past.<ref name=nebula>"[http://science.jrank.org/pages/6265/Solar-System-solar-nebula-hypothesis.html The Solar Nebula Hypothesis]." ''The Science Encyclopedia''. Accessed May 6, 2008.</ref>
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| − | == External links ==
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| − | *[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/earth.htm The Earth]
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| − | *[http://www.noaa.gov/ NOAA] An agency that enriches life through science.
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| − | *[http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/glossary/ Glossary]
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| − | ==References==
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| − | {{reflist|2}}
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| − | {{Solarsystem}}
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| − | [[Category:Featured articles]]
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