Best facts about the earth

The earth is pretty cool. And teaching kids about our planet can be a pretty fun task, especially since most kids will be fascinated by many of the things that earth has to offer. Even as an adult, I often find that the vastness of the planet is pretty mind boggling, and accordingly, I thought that a lot of the tidbits of information offered in the handy infographic below that details some incredible facts about Earth that I think are pretty cool. Check them out below to boggle your own mind, and then share with your students!

Did You Know?

• The international space station was the most expensive object ever constructed? ($150 billion!)
• A photo of the earth has been taken from a distance of 3.7 billion miles.
• The hardiest animal in existence is a tardigrade, and one can exist in a vacuum for ten days. (Fun fact: tardigrades are also referred to as waterbears or moss piglets!)
• A human being can survive unprotected in space for about two minutes.
• China’s air pollution is visible from space, but the Great Wall is not.
• There are really only 23 hours, 56 minutes, and four seconds in a day, not 24 hours.
• The earth is smoother than a bowling ball.
• 100 tons of small meteorites enter the atmosphere every day.
• There are 8.6 million lightning strikes per day.
• 97% of water on earth is salted.
• Antarctica has as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water.
• 90% of the rubbish in the ocean is plastic.
• Only 8-12 humans are killed per year by sharks, but 100 million sharks are killed per year by humans to harvest their fins.
• 90% of all volcanic activity occurs in the ocean.
• 99% of the earth’s gold lies in the core.
• A solid iron ball 1,500 miles wide sits at the center of the earth. The temperature there is about 9900 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The continents move about 2 cm every year.
• 200,000 people are born every day.
• 2 people die every second.