Page 85 - DK Children's Encyclopedia
P. 85

Earth                                                                             SEE ALSO

                                                                                               ▸ ▸ Atmosphere  p.33
                                                                                               ▸ ▸ Earth’s surface
           Earth is the planet we live on. It is the third planet away                          p.84
           from the sun and the largest rocky planet in the solar                              ▸ ▸ Gases  p.117
           system. Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. At the moment                         ▸ ▸ Water  pp.120–121

           it is the only planet known to support life.                                        ▸ ▸ Solar system
                                                                                                p.233

                                                                                               ▸ ▸ Sun  p.247
                           Earth has seven
                           large land masses
                           called continents.                                                          After seeing the
       Our home                                                                                        first pictures from
                                                                                                       space, scientists
       Earth has all the right                                                                         nicknamed Earth
       conditions for life. It is just                                                                 “the blue marble.”
       the right distance from
       the sun, it has oceans
       of liquid water, and a
       blanket of gases called
       an atmosphere that
       protects it from
       outer space.


          Earth’s atmosphere
          is mostly made of
          two gases, nitrogen
          and oxygen.




                About
            70 percent
            of the Earth’s
              surface is
            covered in
           liquid water.
                                                                                                       The white swirls
                                                                                                       are clouds. Thick
                                 Habitable                                                             patches of white
                                                                                                       are storms.




                                                                      Earthrise
                                                                      On Earth, we see a
                                                                      sunrise and a moonrise
                                                                      as the sun and moon
                 Too cold        Too hot                              become visible in the sky.
                                                  Earth is here       When astronauts orbited
       Safe zone                                                      the moon in 1968, they
       Earth orbits the sun in what is known as the                   saw our own planet
       habitable zone (in green), where liquid water                  rising in the sky.
       can exist. Closer to the sun, it is too hot, and
       farther away it is too cold.

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   US_083_Earth.indd   83                                                                                        16/05/2017   10:52
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