Chapter One: The Earth
Section One
Our Solar System
There are countless objects that revolve around our solar system. Planets are the largest objects in our solar system, other than the sun.In addition to the planets, thousands of smaller objects, including asteroids, comets, and meteoroids, revolve around the sun.
The Earth
Part of the Earth is called the hydrosphere, which is the water.Land makes up part of the earth called the lithosphere. The part of the earth that supports life is the biosphere.The biosphere is part of the earth's crust,waters, and atmosphere that supports life. The part of a continent that extends underwater is called a continental shelf. The highest point on earth is in South Asia at the top of Mount Everest. The lowest exposed land on Earth is at the Dead Sea shore, at -413 meters. Earths deepest known depression lies under the Pacific Ocean southwest of Guam in the Mariana Trench a long, narrow, underwater canyon about 35,827 feet (10,923m) deep.
Asteroids, comets, and meteoroids
"The heat incinerated herds of reindeer and charred tens of thousands of ever-greens across hundreds of square miles. for days, and for thousands of miles around], the sky remained bright with an eerie orange glow- as far away as western Europe people were able to read newspapers at night without a lamp."
Richard Stone, "The Last Great Impact on Earth," Discover, September 1996
Layers of the Earth
1. Inner core
2. Outer core
3. Mantel
4. Crust