Earth’s Epic Voyage Through Space

Metric measurement version:

Our magical world.

Since the rise of our species, it is estimated that 117 billion of us have existed. At this time, nearly 8 billion humans are alive and speeding through space on a giant rock 12,742 kilometres wide.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun out of the eight orbiting planets.

Earth revolves around the Sun in the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks zone, a region of space where the temperature is ideal for water to exist in its three commonly recognised states: gas, liquid, and solid.

Without liquid water, there would be no life on our world.

The life-giving water on our planet would boil away if it were too close to the Sun, and be frozen solid if it were too far from the Sun.

Twenty-four hours, or our day, is the time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution on its axis. To give an idea of how fast the Earth is spinning, imagine this:

If you were standing on the equator, the widest part of the Earth, you would be travelling at over 1,670 kilometres per hour, all due to that daily spin.

One year is the time the Earth takes to make a complete orbit around our local star, the Sun.

The distance between the Sun and the Earth is almost 150 million kilometres. To achieve that yearly journey around the Sun, our planet is speeding through space at 107,000 kilometres per hour.

Since its early beginning, our planet has circled the Sun over 4.5 billion times. I feel privileged to have shared that journey 70 times, but it makes you realise how short our lives are.