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Another convention capitalizes "Earth" when appearing as a name (for example, "Earth's atmosphere") but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the (for example, "the atmosphere of the earth"). House styles now vary: Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the capitalized form an acceptable variant. More recently, the name is sometimes simply given as Earth, by analogy with the names of the other planets, though earth and forms with the remain common. By Early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the earth was also written the Earth, particularly when referenced along with other heavenly bodies. From early Middle English, its definite sense as "the globe" was expressed as the earth. Historically, earth has been written in lowercase. As with Roman Terra/Tellūs and Greek Gaia, Earth may have been a personified goddess in Germanic paganism: late Norse mythology included Jörð ('Earth'), a giantess often given as the mother of Thor. In its earliest attestation, the word eorðe was already being used to translate the many senses of Latin terra and Greek γῆ gē: the ground, its soil, dry land, the human world, the surface of the world (including the sea), and the globe itself. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their ancestral root has been reconstructed as * erþō. The modern English word Earth developed, via Middle English, from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe.
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More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct. In the history of life on Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinctions. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, physical properties, and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as early as 4.1 billion years ago. Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the proliferation of anaerobic and, later, aerobic organisms. Earth is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest and most massive of the four rocky planets.Īccording to radiometric dating estimation and other evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. The gravitational interaction between Earth and the Moon causes tides, stabilizes Earth's orientation on its axis, and gradually slows its rotation. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to its orbital plane, producing seasons on Earth. Earth orbits around the Sun in about 365.25 days. Severe weather, such as tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, and heatwaves, occurs in most areas and greatly impacts life.Įarth's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the Moon, which is Earth's only natural satellite. A region's climate is not only determined by latitude, but also by elevation and proximity to moderating oceans, among other factors. Greenhouse gases also play an important role in regulating the surface temperature. More solar energy is received by tropical regions than polar regions and is redistributed by atmospheric and ocean circulation. Earth's outer layer is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over many millions of years, while its interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates Earth's magnetic field, and a convective mantle that drives plate tectonics.Įarth's atmosphere consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Much of Earth's polar regions are covered in ice. The remaining 70.8% is covered with water, mostly by oceans, seas, gulfs, and other salt-water bodies, but also by lakes, rivers, and other freshwater, which together constitute the hydrosphere.
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29.2% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continents and islands. Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbour and support life.