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| The Earth Our Home World. |
The Earth planet is
Our Home. The Earth planet is known as Goldilocks
Planet. The Earth is at the right distance from the Sun. The Earth is in habitable zone of our solar system. This right
distance allows the water in the form of liquid. No too cold and no too hot. So
this region where the Earth is formed is called “Goldilocks region”. The Earth
is the only planet on which the life evolved. The Earth from its early hot form
to became heaven for life is the longest journey. Now the question arises as
How the Earth made as the Planet and how oceans are made? Let us talk about
this now. 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system takes its shapes and
structure as it is now. At that time planets are taking their structures,
stable orbit, revolution about its axis, this process is very slow and taken
billions of years. The Earth was made with the space dust, debris which are
spread when the sun formed and these dust and debris orbiting around the sun.
This orbit will become now the orbit of the Earth.
At the early
age of the Earth, the surface temperature of Earth is very intense, having
volcanic surface, continuous bombardment of asteroids, comets and meteorites
and continuous volcanism on the surface of Earth. But due to the Earth’s
gravitational force, the all metallic materials which are present on the
surface. These materials are attracted towards the centre of the Earth and
creates the solid ball which we call now inner core of the Earth. So now the
surface of earth is cooling down and taking the rocky form. The volcanic
activities and gases coming from it creates the first atmosphere of the Earth.
The comets, asteroids and meteorites are continuously bombard on Earth’s
surface. These comets, asteroids and meteorites consists of water in the form
of ice. And when Earth tends to cooling down, ice melts to crate the oceans of
the Earth.
Now
the question is, how the Earth named? The Earth – name of the planet is created
from English and German words “eor(th)e / ertha” and “erde” respectively, the meaning
of the words is ground. But the handle’s creator is unknown. The interesting
fact about the Earth is, the Earth is only planet which wasn’t named after any
of the Greek or Roman god or goddess. For example, the Saturn planet is named
after the Roman god of agriculture and The Jupiter planet is named after the
King of the Roman gods.
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| The Earth Planet. |
The Earth
requires approximately 365 days to complete one rotation around the sun. The
Earth requires 24 hours to rotates around its axis. The average surface
temperature of the Earth is 15 degrees Celsius (59 F). The diameter of the
Earth is 12,756 km (7,926 miles). The Earth isn’t perfectly upright. The
imagery line of axis from pole to pole is tilted 23.5 degrees, so because of
this tilt causes the seasons. The surface of Earth consists of 71% of oceans
and remaining consists of lands and polar ice caps. The Earth has only one
natural satellite, we called it as the Moon. The 4.5 billion years ago, the
planet is colliding into Earth and blasts molten debris and dust in to space. These
debris and dust are forms a disc around the Earth and after it slowly join and
forms the Moon.
Atmosphere of the Earth Planet
History
The Atmosphere
of the Earth is consisting of the gases, commonly known as air. The early
atmosphere of the Earth is probably just hydrogen and helium, because in gas
cloud which is formed when sun burned mainly dust and gassy and the sun mainly
consists of hydrogen and helium.so the gas cloud has hydrogen and helium gases.
At that time, the Earth and its atmosphere were very hot. So the hydrogen and
helium gas molecules getting energy and so molecules move really fast. The
motion was really faster enough to escape Earth gravity and goes away from the
earth’s atmosphere.
The
todays atmosphere was coming from Earth itself. The lots of volcanoes more than
today, the crust of the Earth was still forming. The volcanoes release hot
steam consists of water molecules, carbon dioxide and ammonia. The most of the
carbon dioxide molecules were dissolved in oceans. The first bacteria were born
in the ocean. These bacteria use the sun light and carbon dioxide for living
and releases the oxygen as waste product in ocean. So the bacteria use carbon
dioxide and releases oxygen. This will increase the level of oxygen and reduces
the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The ammonia was broken into
nitrogen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is lightest element, so it drifts off into
the space.
Now
the atmosphere is capable to support life. Now the atmosphere has enough oxygen
for animals. The animals use oxygen and releases carbon dioxide and the plants
use carbon dioxide and releases the oxygen. So the balance of both the gases,
carbon dioxide and oxygen is maintained.
The Atmosphere
of the Earth planet is very dense. The temperature varies in different layers of the
atmosphere. The atmosphere is divides on the basis of temperature in different
layers and are categorised as Troposphere (we live), Stratosphere, Mesosphere,
Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Exosphere, Magnetosphere.
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| The Earth's atmospheric layers. |
Troposphere layer of the Earth Planet
The
Troposphere is lowest layer of the atmosphere, the part where we live in.at the
bottom of the troposphere is Earth’s surface. About 70% to 80% mass of
atmosphere is in this layer. The Troposphere is composed of 78% nitrogen, 21%
oxygen and a 1% mixture of argon, water vapour and carbon dioxide. Almost all
types of clouds (water vapours) are found in and all weather activities occurs
in this layer. The moisture present is more than any other layer above the
troposphere. The Troposphere is about 10 km (6.2 miles or 33,000 feet) above
the sea level. The height of the layer is different at the different places.
The height of layer increases from the poles to the equator of Earth. At the
polar region the height of layer is lowest about 7 km (4 miles or 23,000 feet)
and at equator region the height of layer is highest about 20 km (12 miles or
65,000 feet).
The
temperature of this layer is warmest at the bottom near the surface of the
Earth. The temperature decreases with increasing height with 6.5 degree Celsius
per km, so this will result into decrease in the atmospheric pressure and also
density of layer is decrease with increase in height. The Troposphere is
densest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. The layer composed of water vapours
(clouds), dust particles and many other things which polluted the air. The
thickness (about 5 to 9 miles or 8 to 14 km) and density, Troposphere absorbs
most of the heat radiated by the surface of Earth and heat coming from the sun.
The sun light heats the Earth surface and
activities inside the Earth also heats the Earth’s surface. So the air at the
lowest level get heated and becomes low dense and goes upwards. So that How
Turbulence occurs. As the air moves upwards it expands. So due to the expansion
in air it cools. So air at upwards is cooler than air at lower down part of
layer. The boundary between Troposphere and Stratosphere is called
“Tropopause”.
Stratosphere
The
Stratosphere is the second layer from the Surface of the Earth. The
Stratosphere is about 50 km from the tropopause. The most valuable Ozone layer
is found in the stratosphere. The Ozone is highly concentrated bluish gas. At
the stratosphere, the ultraviolet radiations from the sun falls on oxygen, it
falls apart to create free oxygen. This free oxygen combines with the other
oxygen molecule to form the Ozone (O3). The Ozone absorbs most of
the Ultraviolet radiation. The ozone absorbs the UV radiations from the sun
protects human skins from cancer and other health damages. Without ozone the
sun ultraviolet radiation will destroy entire life on Earth. The Ozone converts
UV radiation into heat. So as the height increases the temperature is increases
because of converted heat. Due to pollution, the Ozone layer is reducing in
Stratosphere. At the south polar region, the concentration of Ozone layer is
reduced and hole is set up. CFCs, chlorofluorocarbon, Freon and halons are
mostly found in refrigerants, aerosol sprays, fire extinguishers. These chemicals
are cause of drastically reduction in Ozone layer. Now most of these chemicals
are banned. So as a result, the hole at the south polar region called as
“Antarctic Ozone Hole” is developing again.
Mesosphere
The
Mesosphere is third layer from the surface of the Earth. The mesosphere is
about 50 km (31 miles) to 85 km (53 miles) from the Earth surface. The
Mesosphere is between the stratosphere and thermosphere. The boundary between
mesosphere and thermosphere is called as “Mesopause”. Like the troposphere,
Mesospheric temperature decreases with increasing height. Because there are
very few gases molecules are present to absorb the sun’s heat radiations. At
the top part of Mesosphere is the coldest area of the Earth atmosphere. Because
the temperature decreases to as low as 100 k (-173 degree Celsius). Therefore,
this layer of atmosphere called as coldest layer of Earth’s atmosphere.
The
Mesosphere is low density and made up of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
The Mesosphere has the function of maintaining favourable condition to life.
The Mesosphere is one of the most important layers of the Earth’s atmosphere,
where the most of the meteorites are disintegrated when they entering in
Earth’s atmosphere. The Mesosphere influence strong winds go from east to west,
different atmospheric tides, the waves of atmospheric gravity and the planetary
waves.
Thermosphere and Ionosphere
The Thermosphere is the fourth atmospheric
layer from the surface of the Earth. The thermosphere starts from 57 miles or
90 km above Earth and reaching about 300miles or 500 km height. In the Thermosphere, at height 124 miles or
200 km temperature becomes independent of altitude. The temperature increases
with increasing height. The temperature reaches higher than 1830 F or 1000oC.
The amount of increase in temperature as compared with lower layers is very
high. The temperature increases because the molecules present in the layer
absorbs energetic ultraviolet radiations and X-Ray radiations from the sun. So
the Thermosphere is called as “Hottest layer” of the atmosphere. The
Thermosphere is much higher in Earth’s atmosphere, so the density and
atmospheric pressure is very low as compared with other lower layers. At this
height, according to the molecular mass of gases present in the layers tend to
separate in to different layers. Due to molecular separation, each gas takes
different layer which is very favourable condition for chemical reaction. The
chemical reaction happens much feaster here than the surface of Earth.
The ionosphere is very interesting and active part of atmosphere. The ionosphere is not distinct layer like other layers, ionosphere overlaps with the electrically neutral Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere and Magnetosphere. In this layer the gas particles are excited by the solar radiations, as a result created the electrically charged ions. The high energy photons from the sun separates the electrons away from the gases molecule. This creates electrically charged ions of atoms and molecules. Depending up on the energy absorbed by the ionosphere, the layer grows and shrinks. The ions in this layer affected by the magnetic field of Earth and sun. This affected ions creates bright, beautiful band of light called as “Auroras”. The Auroras can sometimes see near the Earth’s polar region.
Exosphere
The Exosphere
is outer most layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The layer is gradually fades in
to the space. The Layer is very cold due to less amount of particles present. The
boundary between the thermosphere and exosphere is called as “Thermopause”. The
exosphere is upper most layer, so the density of the layer is too low. The
layer is about 6,200 miles or 10,000 km thick. The Exosphere is really very big
part of the Earth’s atmosphere. This distance is the half way to the Moon. As
the layer is upper most layer in atmosphere, the radiations from sun first
interacts with this layer. The layer consists of hydrogen and helium. But they
are very apart from each other due to the very low density, so there is lot of
empty space in layer. In lot of empty space, the hydrogen and helium cannot
react or combines with each other.
The
Exosphere is like a first protecting layer of Earth atmosphere. The asteroids,
comets and meteorites are entered first in the Exosphere. The temperature of
the Exosphere is remains constant with height. The average temperature of the
layer is about 1500 k. The Exosphere consists of Van Allen radiation belt and
hydrogen geocorona (present near to the boundary region where the magnetosphere
starts). The Exosphere is very perfect layer for placing satellite due to the
very low density or thin air. Due to the very low density, the satellite can
orbit Earth without any friction or disruption. Some scientist believes that
the Exosphere is not the part of the Earth’s atmosphere, they consider the
Exosphere is part of the space. And some of them believes, is the part of the
Earth’s atmosphere.
Magnetosphere of the Earth Planet
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| The Magnetic Field of the Earth Planet. |
The Magnetosphere
is outermost part of Earth. Magnetosphere extends more than 600,000 km or
370,000 miles from Earth surface. The magnetosphere formed at where the solar
wind interacts with the magnetic field of Earth. There is a constant
interaction between the magnetic field of Earth and the forces of the sun at
the boundary of the magnetosphere. At this part, the magnetic field of Earth is
very effective, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space. The
Magnetosphere is like a shield to our home planet. It protects our planet from
solar and cosmic particles radiations and erosion of the atmosphere due to the
solar wind. It protects Earth from the harmful radiation coming from the sun as
well as from the interstellar space.
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| The Magnetic field of the Earth Planet. |
The boundary between the solar wind and the magnetic field of
Earth is known as Magnetopause. On the dayside of the Earth, due to the
pressure of the solar wind on magnetic field of Earth compresses the field and
on the night side of the Earth, the magnetic field stretches the field into a
long tail.
How
Earth is made of?
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| The Cross sectional view of the Earth. |
The Earth is made of the mainly
four parts, Inner Core, Outer Core, Mantle and Crust. Now at first we will
explain about the Inner Core of the
Earth. The Inner Core of the Earth is made up of the solid metal. There is no
direct evidence about from which element or elements the inner core of Earth is
made of. On the basis of the planet formation in the early days of Earth. The
chemicals and elements are present on Earth and in the solar system, the inner
core is believed to be made of iron and nickel alloy. The inner core is solid
and outer core is molten metallic liquid, so the inner core of Earth is not
connected with the solid Mantle. So there is may be difference in the rotation
of inner core and the Earth rotation speed. The inner core may be slightly
quicker than the Earth or it may be slightly slower than the Earth. The inner
core of Earth is the inner most part, no any human can go to visit it. So the
scientific data is collect from the seismic tech. The almost all physical
properties of the inner core are taken by using seismic waves by the
scientists. The data get from the seismic waves; the inner core of Earth is
estimated to be approximately 1221 km in radius. This approximately 20% of the
Earth’s radius and 70% of our Moon’s radius. The temperature of the inner core
is very high approximately 5,700 k or 9800 F, as same as that on the surface of
sun. But at the composition, we found the inner core is solid iron and nickel
alloy. The solidness of the inner core is because of the intense pressure at
the inner core. The pressure turns the inner core in solid.
What the Earth outer core is made of?
Now the question about the Outer Core of the Earth, What the Earth
outer core is made of? The Earth’s outer core is made of low viscosity liquid metallic
material. The liquid metallic material is continuously flowing around the Inner
core of the Earth. The thickness of the outer core is about 2,200 km or 1,367
miles. The boundary between the Inner core and outer core is called as “The
Bullen discontinuity”. At this boundary the temperature is very intense more
than on the surface of sun. The metallic iron and nickel alloyed outer core is
liquid because the high temperature at the outer core about 4,500o C to 5,500o
C or 8,132 Fahrenheit to 9,932 Fahrenheit. Due to the intense pressure at
the inner core, it changes the melting point of the iron and nickel alloy and
making it solid. We know about the outer core metallic liquid is continuously
flowing. Because the Earth spinning around its axis of rotation. According to
the Dynamo theory, eddy currents in iron and nickel alloy fluid of outer core
is the principal source of the Magnetic field of the Earth. The magnetic field
generated at the outer core is 50 times stronger than the magnetic field at the
surface of the Earth. The Outer core of the Earth is most important part of its
interior. Without outer core, life on Earth may not stars or life may be
different than now. Because of the liquid metallic iron nickel flow in the
outer core, magnetosphere of Earth is produced. This magnetosphere protects the
atmosphere of the Earth. Without the outer core, the atmosphere of Earth may
not have developed or developed atmosphere might be removed and making planet
lifeless.
The Mantle of the Earth
The turn is for Mantle of Earth. The Earth’s Mantle is third part from inner core of Earth. The Mantle is solid rock that made up are mostly silicates. Silicate is composed of silicon and oxygen. The mantle is about 1,800 miles or 2,890 km deep. The Mantle of Earth is 84% of Earth’s total volume. The variety of silicates are found in the Mantle of Earth are pyroxene, garnet, olivine, etc. The major part of Mantle is made up of the magnesium oxide. Due to the convection or movement in the Mantle causes volcanic and seismic activity of the Earth. According to the seismic studies by scientists, the Mantle of Earth is divided into sections as Upper Mantle, Transition Zone, Lower Mantle and Core Mantle. The Upper Mantle is about 7 km to 35 km or 4.2 miles to 22 miles from the surface down to Earth. The Transition zone starts approximately from 420 km to 650 km or 250 miles to 420 miles. The Lower Mantle starts from 650 km to a depth of 2,890 km or 420 miles to depth of 1,795 miles. Now the Core Mantle, the thickness of Core Mantle varies because of temperature of outer core of Earth. The average thickness of Earth is approximately about 200 km or 120 miles. The Mantle of Earth is actually composed of 45% of Oxygen, 22% of Silicon and 23% of Magnesium. Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Aluminium and Iron are also found in the Mantle of Earth. These all elements are takes their oxides forms. These all elements are bound together in form of Silicate rocks.
The Crust of the Earth
The Crust of the Earth is outer most layer
of the Earth. The Crust is floating over the Mantle of the Earth. The Crust of
the Earth is the hardest layer among the rest of the layers. The Crust is less
than 1% of Earth. The Crust is made up of different types of rocks. The Crust
and the Mantle is broken up into tectonic plates. The Crust is mainly of two different
types, the Oceanic Crust and the Continental Crust. The Oceanic Crust, which is
under the ocean and the second one is the Continental Crust which is under the
land. The Oceanic Crust is very thinner type of the Crust. The thickness of the
Oceanic Crust is about 5 km to 10 km or 3 miles to 6 miles. The Oceanic Crust
is made up of basalt like denser rock. Now the Continental Crust is thicker
than the Oceanic Crust. The thickness of Oceanic Crust is about 30 km to 50 km
or 20 miles to 30 miles. The continental Crust is mostly made up of granite
like less dense rock. The Crust of Earth is mostly made up of igneous rocks.
Approximately 90% of Crust of Earth is made up of igneous rock by volume. The
temperature of the Crust increases with depth. The Crust is the coldest layer
among the all layers of the Earth because the layer exposes to the Earth’s
atmosphere. The average temperature of Earth’s Crust is 14o C. The
maximum temperature recorded was approximately 70o C. The
temperature of the Crust is different on different parts of the Earth. In the
desert, the temperature is much hotter and at the Antarctica, it is so freezing
cold.
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| The Orbit of the Earth. |
The Orbit of the Earth Planet
Now the
time is to get knowledge about the Earth’s
orbit around the sun. The Earth requires 365.24 days to complete one
revolution around the sun. The Earth also in an Elliptical orbit around the sun
like all other planets in our solar system. But unlikely the other inner
planets, the Earth orbit around the sun is nearly the circular. The average
distance of the Earth from the sun is 150 million km or 93 million miles. The
speed of the Earth around the sun is 108,000 km per hours that means Earth
travels 940 million km during a single orbit. The distance of Earth from the
sun varies day by day. When the Earth is closest to the sun, known as
“Perihelion”. This occurs at January. And when the Earth farthest from the sun,
known as “Aphelion”. This occurs at July. The Perihelion and Aphelion distance
from the sun is little, less than 5 million km. This is because, the orbit of
Earth is nor perfect circular. The speed of the Earth orbiting around the sun
is not constant. The planet moves faster when it is at “Perihelion” and moves
slower when planet is at the “Aphelion”. Because of the Earth revolving around
the sun and the tilted axis of rotation, the Earth experiences Seasons. Due to
the tilted axis of rotation, the one of the earth’s pole is always toward the
sun. So when north pole is towards the sun, the Norther Hemisphere experiences
summer season and at same time the southern Hemisphere experiences winter
season. And when south pole is towards the sun, the Southern Hemisphere
experiences summer season and the same time Northern Hemisphere experiences
winter season.
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| The orbit of the Moon around the Earth. |
Now the
time for the transits. The Earth orbiting the Sun likely the Moon orbiting our
Home world Earth. The Moon is our planet’s natural satellite. We explained
transits of Mercury and Venus. But in case of Moon, the transit of the Moon is
eclipses. The eclipse of the Sun occurs when the Earth, Moon and Sun are
perfect aligned. The solar eclipse
occurs when the part of Earth is covered by the shadow of the Moon. The Moon
may cover the sunlight partially or fully. The distance between the Earth and
the sun is about 400 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. And the
diameter of the sun is also same percentage 400 times more than the Moon.
Because of more distance between the Earth and the Sun, the sun and the moon
appears to be approximately the same in size. So the Moon can block total
sunlight during the eclipse. The shadow of Moon usually misses Earth, because
the orbit of moon around the Earth is tilted at more than 5 degrees to the
orbit of Earth around the sun. The orbit of the Moon is slightly elliptical, so
the Moon sometimes closer to the Earth and sometimes away from the Earth. The
total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is closest to the Earth, because the
Moon appears to be large enough to completely cover the sun bright disk. And
when the moon is farthest from the Earth, the annular solar eclipse occurs.
Because the Moon is slightly smaller than the sun’s bright disk, so this
appears like the ring of fire around the dark disk of Moon. The Hybrid solar
eclipse is appearing total at some location, partial at some locations, annular
at some locations. A total solar eclipse is rare opportunity to observe the
corona of the sun (corona is sun’s outer layer atmosphere). An eclipse is
natural phenomenon. But some ancient and modern cultures say that the eclipse
comes with the dark and bad things, During the solar eclipse the power of bad
things are increased. The mythology says about eclipse, a Rahu eats the sun and
the moon cause the eclipse. But the beheaded Rahu cannot hold both the sun and
the moon longer in the mouth. So the eclipse is not so longer. But the Vedic
scripts provides the scientific knowledge about the solar eclipse in a perfect
manner.
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| The Solar Eclipse. |
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| The Ring of fire solar eclipse. |
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| The Partial Solar Eclipse. |
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