About the earth and its moon
About the moon
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article is about the planet. For its human aspects, see World. For other
uses, see Earth (disambiguation) and Planet Earth (disambiguation).
Earth 🜨 Photograph of Earth, taken by the Apollo 17 mission. The Arabian
peninsula, Africa and Madagascar lie in the lower half of the disc,
whereas Antarctica is at the top. A photograph of Earth taken by the
crew of Apollo 17 in 1972. A processed version became widely known as
The Blue Marble.[1][2] Designations Alternative names Gaia, Terra,
Tellus, the world, the globe Adjectives Earthly, terrestrial, terran,
tellurian Orbital characteristics Epoch J2000[n 1] Aphelion 152100000 km
(94500000 mi)[n 2] Perihelion 147095000 km (91401000 mi)[n 2] Semi-major
axis 149598023 km (92955902 mi)[3] Eccentricity 0.0167086[3] Orbital
period (sidereal) 365.256363004 d[4] (1.00001742096 aj) Average orbital
speed 29.78 km/s[5] (107200 km/h; 66600 mph) Mean anomaly 358.617°
Inclination 7.155° to the Sun's equator; 1.57869°[6] to invariable
plane; 0.00005° to J2000 ecliptic Longitude of ascending node
−11.26064°[5] to J2000 ecliptic Time of perihelion 2022-Jan-04[7]
Argument of perihelion 114.20783°[5] Satellites 1 natural satellite: the
Moon 5 quasi-satellites 4 500 operational artificial satellites[8]
18 000 tracked space debris[n 3] Physical characteristics Mean radius
6371.0 km (3958.8 mi)[9] Equatorial radius 6378.137 km (3963.191
mi)[10][11] Polar radius 6356.752 km (3949.903 mi)[12] Flattening
1/298.257222101 (ETRS89)[13] Circumference 40075.017 km equatorial
(24901.461 mi)[11] 40007.86 km meridional (24859.73 mi)[14][n 4] Surface
area 510072000 km2 (196940000 sq mi)[15][n 5] 148940000 km2 land
(57510000 sq mi) 361132000 km2 ocean (139434000 sq mi) Volume
1.08321×1012 km3 (2.59876×1011 cu mi)
