Page 303 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

TRUE OR FALSE? 301
Earth is a
TRUE or
FALSE?
perfect sphere

Astronauts dubbed our planet the “blue

marble,” but the notion that it is spherical
falls flat. With its mountains and valleys,

it is clear that Earth’s lumps and bumps
can never be whipped into perfect
shape. Instead, our planet is an oblate

spheroid—a sphere squashed at the
ends and swollen in the middle.

Earth’s
circumference FAST FACTS
is 24,900 miles
(40,074 km).
EARTH IS MANTLE
Earth’s oceans OUTER CORE
formed when steam THE DENSEST of molten
in the young planet’s OF ALL THE PLANETS metal
atmosphere condensed INNER CORE
into water and fell This is because Earth contains a lot of solid
metal
to the surface. of iron. Both its solid inner core and
molten outer core are mainly iron, EARTH
while the rest of the core is nickel.

SUN’S 5,000 THE TEMPERATURE AT
SURFACE 8,000 EARTH’S
9,900°F 4,000 CORE EARTH’S CORE IS
(5,500°C) 6,000 10,112ºF
3,000 (5,600ºC) 10,112ºF (5,600ºC)
2,000 4,000
That’s as hot as the sun’s surface! Thankfully,
1,000 2,000
the earth’s surface is much cooler—the average
0 0 global temperature is 59ºF (15ºC). The hottest
EARTH’S AVERAGE regions of the surface are near the equator,
TEMPERATURE °C °F while the coldest are near its two poles.
59°F (15°C)

US_300-301_309600_Planet_Earth.indd 301 19/12/17 3:49 pm