The size of the Earth depends upon how you measure it. If you were to circumnavigate the world (on land and sea) following the Equator, you would travel 40,075km (24,902 miles). Starting at one pole and visiting the other, you would travel 67km (42 miles) less. The Earth’s diameter, pole to pole, is 12,714km (7900 miles), while the distance through the Earth at the Equator is a further 43km (27 miles).
The radius of Earth at the equator is 3,963 miles (6,378 kilometers), according to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. However, Earth is not quite a sphere. The planet’s rotation causes it to bulge at the equator. Earth’s polar radius is 3,950 miles (6,356 km) — a difference of 13 miles (22 km).
Earth’s density is 5.513 grams per cubic centimeter, according to NASA. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system because of its metallic core and rocky mantle. Jupiter, which is 318 more massive than Earth, is less dense because it is made of gases, such as hydrogen.
Earth’s mass is 6.6 sextillion tons (5.9722 x 1024 kilograms). It volume is about 260 billion cubic miles (1 trillion cubic kilometers).
The total surface area of Earth is about 197 million square miles (510 million square km). About 71 percent is covered by water and 29 percent by land.
Mount Everest is the highest place on Earth above sea level, at 29,028 feet (8,848 meters), but it is not the highest point on Earth — that is, the place most distant from the center of the Earth. That distinction belongs to Mount Chimaborazo in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Although Chimaborazo is about 10,000 feet shorter (relative to sea level) than Everest, this mountain is about 6,800 feet (2,073 m) farther into space because of the equatorial bulge.
The lowest point on Earth is Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, according to the NOAA. It reaches down about 36,200 feet (11,034 meters) below sea level.
Picture Credit : Google
