Despite the fact that we are the member of the Earth, we don't know everything about it. There are some strange things in our home planet which we need to know.
Even being so much more involved in the advanced research techniques and also being duly developed, most of us don't know a lot of things about the place we live in. Hence, we have compiled a list of such mysterious things that will shock the all of us. Below is a list of top ten strange things you didn't know about our home planet earth.
1. The Earth is Hot
Most of us believe that the living organism in the earth would quickly become extinct due to lack of heat if the Sun is blocked by the cloud or if it just drifted away. Most of us would think that the earth's surface will freeze if the sun were to disappear. But this is not the true case.
CAPTION: Earth's Crust SOURCE: Gsias Blogs If you have some knowledge of the science then you must know that the core of the earth is also as hot as the surface of the Sun. It is around 5,000-7,000 degrees Celsius. So in case of something calamitous happens to the Sun then we can harness energy from the core of the earth to keep every living organism alive.
2. Shape
A long time before, our ancestors used to think that the Earth was flat and they were worried about falling off the earth. But, in around 6th BC, Pythagoras, a Greek scientist, originated the idea of a rounded earth. Time passed by and came Galileo Galili, the inventor of a telescope, who also believed the earth to be round.
CAPTION: Earth's shape SOURCE: Jos Leys In the modern world, most of us are really into the thinking that the earth's shape is spherical, but this too is not totally a correct answer. With a lot of research, it has been shown that the earth is not perfectly spherical. The equatorial parts containing Asia and Australia has a little bulge on it which gives out a chubby shape. Scientists believe that this shape is caused by rotation of the earth on its axis.
3. Recycled
Most of us know what recycling is, isn't it? But, what a lot of us don't know is that the ground we are standing on is also recycled. It is a known fact that the erupting volcanoes in the oceans create Land Masses and Islands everywhere. But, those land masses go through a lot to become walkable.
CAPTION: Recycled Land SOURCE: Die Cuttin Davis The Magma rises to the surface and hardens then it is referred to as igneous rocks. Later, the rocks are compacted into sedimentary rocks and later form metamorphic rocks, which we generally stand on. This cycle repeats itself over and over again.
4. Hours in a Day
Well, we are taught and said that there are 24 hours a day since our school days. But to be honest, it's technically not true. As per the scientific research, the earth spins on its axis for 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to complete a whole day.
CAPTION: a day is 23 hours 56 mins 4 secs long SOURCE: The reason for adding extra 3 minutes and 4 seconds is that the distance from the earth is so great that it takes extra time for all of us to face the Sun again. So in the end, the days will be more than 24 hours. This is all because the Earth spins slower and slower every few million years later.
5. Space Junk
For many years, people have been traveling to space well over 130 times. And it's obvious that all the traveling to space has created a lot of junk in the orbit of the earth. Some of the junk is natural while others are man-made ie., not useful rocket bodies.
CAPTION: Space Junk SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine There is more junk than the space satellites in the globe's orbit. Around 370, 000 pieces of space junk are stuck in the earth orbit. And it can be dangerous for all the living organism to exist if all of them were to fall.
6. Shifting Gravity
If there is an uneven mass, there is uneven gravity. Hudson of Canada also has an uneven mass. Once upon a time, there were glaciers in that area but coming to this date it has already melted. Although the glaciers have melted, the burden of gravity still remains under the Earth’s crust in ice sheets. Due to all this, the gravity in Hudson Bay is lower than other places in the Earth.
CAPTION: Earth's Gravity SOURCE: Phys Around 0.005 percent gravity in this place is differentiated than other places. It's so small amount that you won't be able to feel the gravity reduction.
7. The Amazon
In spite of occupying 2,100,000 Square miles of land, the Amazon Forest produces more than 20% of earth's oxygen. There are several other rainforests in Central America, Africa, Southern Asia, and Australia that are way smaller than the Amazon.
CAPTION: Amazon forest SOURCE: Ask Change All the other rainforests if connected with each other will create as big a forest like the Amazon.
8. Northern Lights
A bright mix of the light of the aurora are collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. Those lights are seen in the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth. They are known as 'Aurora australis' in the south and 'Aurora borealis' in the north. It appears in different shades of color like red, yellow, green, blue, pink. Mostly it is displayed in green and pink.
CAPTION: Northern Lights SOURCE: Hurriyet It is the result of collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere with gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere. And the variation in color is due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.
9. Ocean salt Creation
Almost all of us know that there is salt in the Ocean. But most of us are unaware about how the salt is formed. So for your knowledge, the salt comes from the rocks on the shores of the ocean.
CAPTION: salt in ocean SOURCE: Berkely Wellness Naturally, the rainwater is so acidic that it will cause the breakdown of the rocks and that components will be distributed into the water. The water in the earth is so dense that if you evaporate all of oceans water, it would result in a 500-foot thick layer of salt on absolutely everything that exists in the earth.
10. More Microbes than People
Some of us think that humans are the dominant species on the earth as we have more than 7.5 billion people in it. However, this is not true that human is the dominant species on the earth. For example, if we take one teaspoon of soil then it will contain more living organism than the people of our planet.
CAPTION: Microbes SOURCE: NPR Well, there are more things on the planet that we are unaware of. If you know a number of facts that we haven't listed here, please write to us through the comment section.