Third rock from the Sun — 4.54 billion years old

The Pale Blue Dot

An interactive portrait of the only known world harboring life — hurtling through space at 107,000 km/h.

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01 / Vital Statistics

Planet at a Glance

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Diameter
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Mass (×10²¹)
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Distance from Sun
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Orbital Period
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Avg Surface Temperature
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Surface Water Coverage
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Natural Satellites
0.44°
Axial Tilt

02 / Atmosphere

What We Breathe

78% Nitrogen
21% Oxygen
0.93% Argon
0.04% CO₂

03 / Internal Structure

Peeling Back the Layers

Crust

The thin, rocky outer shell — ranging from just 5 km beneath the oceans to 70 km under continental mountain ranges. Composed primarily of silicate rocks, it's the only layer we've directly sampled.

Depth: 5–70 km  |  Temp: up to 500°C

Mantle

Making up 84% of Earth's volume, this semi-viscous layer drives plate tectonics through slow convection currents. The upper mantle contains the asthenosphere — a partially molten zone that allows tectonic plates to glide.

Depth: 70–2,900 km  |  Temp: 500–4,000°C

Outer Core

A churning ocean of liquid iron and nickel. Its convective motion generates Earth's magnetic field — the invisible shield that deflects solar wind and protects the atmosphere from being stripped away.

Depth: 2,900–5,150 km  |  Temp: 4,000–5,700°C

Inner Core

A solid sphere of crystallized iron as hot as the Sun's surface, kept solid by immense pressure — over 3.6 million atmospheres. It rotates slightly faster than the rest of the planet.

Depth: 5,150–6,371 km  |  Temp: ~5,400°C

04 / Deep Time

4.54 Billion Years in Moments

4.54 BYA
Formation from Solar Nebula
Earth accretes from dust and gas orbiting the young Sun. Within 100 million years, differentiation separates the iron core from the silicate mantle.
4.5 BYA
The Giant Impact — Birth of the Moon
A Mars-sized body called Theia collides with proto-Earth. Debris from the impact coalesces into our Moon, forever stabilizing Earth's axial tilt.
3.8 BYA
First Life Emerges
The oldest evidence of microbial life appears in hydrothermal vents or warm shallow pools. Single-celled organisms begin the long journey.
2.4 BYA
The Great Oxidation Event
Cyanobacteria flood the atmosphere with oxygen — lethal to most existing life. Earth rusts red. The survivors evolve to breathe this new poison.
541 MYA
The Cambrian Explosion
Complex multicellular life erupts across the oceans in a burst of evolutionary creativity. Most modern animal phyla appear within 20 million years.
66 MYA
Chicxulub Impact — End of the Dinosaurs
A 10 km asteroid strikes the Yucatán Peninsula, triggering mass extinction. Mammals inherit the Earth and diversify rapidly.
300,000 YA
Homo sapiens Appear
Modern humans emerge in Africa. In the 4.54-billion-year timeline of Earth, our entire species exists in the final 0.007%.

05 / Right Now

Earth, This Second

World Population (est.)
8,200,000,000
+~140 net births per minute
Atmospheric CO₂
427ppm
Pre-industrial: 280 ppm (+52.5%)
Global Temp Anomaly
+1.3°C
Above 1850–1900 baseline
Forest Cover
~31%
≈ 4.06 billion hectares remaining

06 / Wonders

Things You Might Not Know

🌊

The Ocean is Barely Explored

Over 80% of Earth's ocean floor remains unmapped and unseen. We have better maps of Mars than of our own seafloor.

⚡

Lightning Strikes Constantly

At any given moment, about 1,800 thunderstorms are active on Earth, producing roughly 100 lightning strikes per second.

🧲

The Magnetic Field Flips

Earth's magnetic poles have reversed hundreds of times. The last flip was 780,000 years ago — and the field is currently weakening.

🌍

Not Quite a Sphere

Earth is an oblate spheroid — it bulges at the equator by about 43 km due to its rotation. The equatorial diameter exceeds the polar diameter.

🦠

More Trees Than Stars

Earth has roughly 3 trillion trees — about 7.5× more than the ~400 billion stars estimated in the Milky Way.

🕳️

Deepest Hole: 12.26 km

Russia's Kola Superdeep Borehole is the deepest artificial point on Earth — yet it barely scratched 0.2% of the distance to the core.

🌋

A Day Used to Be 6 Hours

4.5 billion years ago, Earth spun so fast a day lasted only 6 hours. Tidal forces from the Moon are gradually slowing us down.