A Blue Pearl
With two thirds of its surface covered by water, Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbour life. Viewed from space, it is like a glowing blue pearl that astonishes astronauts with its beauty and obvious life. Earth is located in a galaxy of stars called the Milky Way which is 890 billion times the mass of the Sun. The Sun’s diameter is 864,400 miles which is 109 times that of Earth. The Sun weighs 333,000 times as much as Earth and is so large that 1,300,000 planet Earths could fit inside it. Betelgeuse, a red giant star, is 700 times bigger than the Sun and 14,000 times brighter. Astronomers estimate there are 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone. Outside that, there are millions upon millions of other galaxies also! This fragile planet fills us with wonder makes us ponder the biggest questions.
- ‘Once you’ve been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is’ – Valentina Tereshkova