Earth
bla bla bla
its 4.6 billion years old
GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dash;about 70%—is covered by water. In fact, the Pacific and Indian oceans alone cover about half of the Earth's surface.
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 planets and dwarf planets 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.
Origin
People disagree about when and how the Earth was created. The three most popular ideas are:
- 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).
- That God created the Earth billions of years ago (see Old Earth Creationism and Theistic Evolution).
- 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.
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. duiots