Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life.

This is
enabled by Earth being a water world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface
water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its global ocean, covering 70.8% of Earth's crust.
The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form
of continental landmasses within one hemisphere, Earth's land hemisphere. Most of Earth's land is
somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while large sheets of ice at Earth's polar deserts retain
more water than Earth's groundwater, lakes, rivers and atmospheric water combined. Earth's crust
consists of slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes,
and earthquakes. Earth has a liquid outer core that generates a magnetosphere capable of
deflecting most of the destructive solar winds and cosmic radiation.
Earth has a dynamic atmosphere, which sustains Earth's surface conditions and protects it from
most meteoroids and UV-light at entry. It has a composition of primarily nitrogen and oxygen. Water
vapor is widely present in the atmosphere, forming clouds that cover most of the planet. The water
vapor acts as a greenhouse gas and, together with other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,
particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), creates the conditions for both liquid surface water and water
vapor to persist via the capturing of energy from the Sun's light. This process maintains the current
average surface temperature of 14.76 °C, at which water is liquid under atmospheric pressure.
Differences in the amount of captured energy between geographic regions (as with the equatorial
region receiving more sunlight than the polar regions) drive atmospheric and ocean currents,
producing a global climate system with different climate regions, and a range of weather phenomena
such as precipitation, allowing components such as nitrogen to cycle.
Earth is rounded into an ellipsoid with a circumference of about 40,000 km. It is the densest planet in
the Solar System. Of the four rocky planets, it is the largest and most massive. Earth is about
eight light-minutes away from the Sun and orbits it, taking a year (about 365.25 days) to complete
one revolution. Earth rotates around its own axis in slightly less than a day (in about 23 hours and 56
minutes). Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to the perpendicular to its orbital plane around
the Sun, producing seasons. Earth is orbited by one permanent natural satellite, the Moon, which
orbits Earth at 384,400 km (1.28 light seconds) and is roughly a quarter as wide as Earth.
Through tidal locking, the Moon always faces Earth with the same side, which causes tides,
stabilizes Earth's axis, and gradually slows its rotation.
Earth, like most other bodies in the Solar System, formed 4.5 billion years ago from gas in the early
Solar System. During the first billion years of Earth's history, the ocean formed and then life
developed within it. Life spread globally and has been altering Earth's atmosphere and surface,
leading to the Great Oxidation Event two billion years ago. Humans emerged 300,000 years ago
in Africa and have spread across every continent on Earth with the exception of Antarctica. Humans
depend on Earth's biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but have increasingly impacted
the planet's environment. Humanity's current impact on Earth's climate and biosphere
is unsustainable, threatening the livelihood of humans and many other forms of life, and causing
widespread extinctions.[23]

Etymology
The Modern English word Earth developed, via Middle English, from an Old English noun most often
spelled eorðe.[24] It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their ancestral root has been
reconstructed as *erþō. In its earliest attestation, the word eorðe was already being used to translate
the many senses of Latin terra and Greek γῆ gē: the ground, its soil, dry land, the human world, the
surface of the world (including the sea), and the globe itself. As with Roman Terra/Tellūs and
Greek Gaia, Earth may have been a personified goddess in Germanic paganism: late Norse
mythology included Jörð ('Earth'), a giantess often given as the mother of Thor.[25]
Historically, earth has been written in lowercase. From early Middle English, its definite sense as
"the globe" was expressed as the earth. By the era of Early Modern English, capitalization of nouns
began to prevail, and the earth was also written the Earth, particularly when referenced along with
other heavenly bodies. More recently, the name is sometimes simply given as Earth, by analogy with
the names of the other planets, though earth and forms with the remain common.[24] House
styles now vary: Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the
capitalized form an acceptable variant. Another convention capitalizes "Earth" when appearing as a
name (for example, "Earth's atmosphere") but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the (for
example, "the atmosphere of the earth"). It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial
expressions such as "what on earth are you doing?"[26]
Occasionally, the name Terra /ˈtɛrə/ is used in scientific writing and especially in science fiction to
distinguish humanity's inhabited planet from others,[27] while in poetry Tellus /ˈtɛləs/ has been used to
denote personification of the Earth.[28] Terra is also the name of the planet in some Romance
languages (languages that evolved from Latin) like Italian and Portuguese, while in other Romance
languages the word gave rise to names with slightly altered spellings (like the Spanish Tierra and
the French Terre). The Latinate form Gæa or Gaea (English: /ˈdʒiː.ə/) of the Greek poetic
name Gaia (Γαῖα; Ancient Greek: [ɡâi̯ .a] or [ɡâj.ja]) is rare, though the alternative spelling Gaia has
become common due to the Gaia hypothesis, in which case its pronunciation is /ˈɡaɪ.ə/ rather than
the more classical English /ˈɡeɪ.ə/.[29]
There are a number of adjectives for the planet Earth. From Earth itself comes earthly. From the
Latin Terra comes terran /ˈtɛrən/,[30] terrestrial /təˈrɛstriəl/,[31] and (via French) terrene /təˈriːn/,[32] and
from the Latin Tellus comes tellurian /tɛˈlʊəriən/[33] and telluric.[34]