Earth Facts

1. How many times bigger is the Sun's diameter compared to the Earth?

2. How many times bigger is the Earth's diameter compared to the Moon?

3. Draw a circle on paper with a diameter of 13.9cm. If this circle represents the Sun, draw another to show the size of the Earth.

The Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a perfect circle. It is an ellipse. This means that the Earth is closer to and further away from the Sun at different times in the year.

Perihelion - when the Earth is closest to the Sun (usually happens in January)

Aphelion - when the Earth is furthest from the Sun (usually happens in June)

As well as orbiting the Sun the Earth is spinning. Its axis of rotation (the line its spins about) is tilted by about 23.5 ⁰. We shall see later that this is why we have seasons.

The Earth is not a perfect sphere but bulges slightly at the equator. The Earth rotates one every 24 hours. The axis of rotation goes through the poles, north and south. The equator is a ring on the surface of the Earth around the middle, equidistant from both poles. Some cultures believed that there was actually a pole sticking out of the ground at the North and South pole.

If you went to the North pole how would you know if you had arrived?