The fact is that once people did not know anything about the planets and sincerely believed that our Earth was flat. Remember the pictures from books on history, geography, astronomy. Variants of human representations were different. Some believed that the Earth is a disk held by three elephants. Others - that this is a flat body located on the shell of a sea turtle standing in the water.
Or even that it is carried across the ocean from place to place by a huge whale, but the shape of its habitat in the beliefs of different peoples of different times remained unchanged: flat, thin, wide and ... low. And here it is, the main word, from which the name of our planet originates. The fact is that in the common Slavic group of languages, the root of the word Earth means the following: “bottom”, “floor”, “below”, “soil”, “earth”. That is, if people imagined our planet as a kind of huge "earth pancake", then, accordingly, that is exactly what they called it, in the meaning: "the earth below", "the soil under their feet", "a flat low plate".
By the way, the British are not far from us in this. In English, Earth is Earth. And now we look at the meaning of the word erda, from which the name was formed. This is exactly - "soil", "soil". And, by the way, it was the English name of our planet that has been original since the fifteenth century. The rest of the experts used to name this celestial body the concepts ancient rome and Greece.
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Who? And why?
What the wiki says:
The name Earth was formed from the common Slavic ancient root "zem-", which meant bottom, floor, earth.
AT English language Earth - Earth. This name originated from the 8th century Anglo-Saxon word erda, which meant earth or soil. In Old English this became eorthe and then in Middle English to erthe. As the name of the planet Earth was first used around 1400. In English, this the only name planet that was not taken from Greco-Roman mythology.The standard astronomical sign of the Earth is a cross outlined by a circle. This symbol has been used in various cultures for various purposes. Another version of the symbol is a cross on top of a circle (), a stylized orb; was used as an early astronomical symbol for the planet Earth.
In many cultures, the Earth is deified. She is associated with a goddess, a mother goddess, called Mother Earth, often depicted as a goddess of fertility.
The Aztecs called the Earth Tonantzin - "our mother". Among the Chinese, this is the goddess Hou-Tu (), similar to the Greek goddess of the Earth - Gaia. AT Scandinavian mythology The Earth goddess Yord was the mother of Thor and the daughter of Annar. In ancient Egyptian mythology, unlike many other cultures, the Earth is identified with a man - the god Geb, and the sky with a woman - the goddess Nut.
In many ancient cultures, the Earth was considered flat, so, in the culture of Mesopotamia, the world was represented as a flat disk floating on the surface of the ocean. Assumptions about the spherical shape of the Earth were made by the Greek philosophers; This view was held by Pythagoras. In the Middle Ages, most Europeans believed that the Earth was spherical, as witnessed by thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas. Before the advent space flights, judgments about the spherical shape of the Earth were based on the observation of secondary signs and on a similar shape of other planets.
Technological progress in the second half of the 20th century changed general perception Earth. Before space travel, the Earth was often depicted as a green world. Science fiction writer Frank Paul may have been the first to depict a cloudless blue planet (with clearly defined land) on the back of the July issue of Amazing Stories in 1940.
In 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 took the famous photograph of the Earth, called "Blue Marble" (Blue Marble).A picture of the Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 from a huge distance from it (6 billion kilometers (circled in blue)), prompted Carl Sagan to compare the planet with a pale blue dot (Pale Blue Dot).
We managed to take a picture [of open space], and if you look at it, you can see a dot. That's her. This is our house. This is us. Everyone you know is here, everyone you love, everyone you've ever heard of, every person that's ever been born has lived here. Here are all our joys and misfortunes, thousands of true creeds, ideologies and economic doctrines. Every hunter and gatherer, every hero and coward, every founder and destroyer of civilizations, every monarch and commoner, all young lovers, all hopeful children, all mothers and fathers, every inventor and explorer, every spiritual guide, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every dignitary, every saint and every sinner of the human race lived here - on this speck of dust, hanging in the rays of sunlight.The earth is only a tiny part of the vast outer space. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by countless commanders and emperors in order to conquer a small part of this point in triumph for some moments. Remember the cruelties perpetrated by the inhabitants of one part of the dot on the inhabitants of another part of it. How difficult it is for them to understand how easily they kill each other, how their hatred boils. Our principles, our belief in our own worth, the belief that we play some kind of exclusive role in the universe - all this is overshadowed by a pale point in the photograph.
Our planet is a lonely grain of sand shrouded in the endless darkness of space. Out of this darkness - out of this infinity - we have nowhere to look for help, no one to save us from ourselves. We must do this ourselves. Someone said that astronomy teaches humility - and I will add that it builds character. I believe that this depiction of our tiny world is the only true way of showing how dangerous human vanity is. This photo highlights how important it is to learn to treat each other with kindness and compassion, how to protect and care for this pale blue dot - the only home we have.
Also, the Earth was compared with a large spaceship with a life support system to be maintained, or the Earth's biosphere was described as one large organism.
But, you know, I'm interested in something else. Since when did the word "Earth" become the official name of our planet? Who proposed it? Who approved? Who wrote and prescribed to everyone that now it is so?
Everything in life should have a name. Otherwise, how to talk about it, how to discuss it? How to call, studying this or that phenomenon or object? Cities and villages, rivers and seas, food and toys, furniture and transport have names. We all know perfectly well that everyone and the planets have a name. Our Earth is also a planet. But why is she called that? When and who gave it such a name?
In fact, before there was no division into stars and planets. All celestial bodies were called stars, and they were given appropriate names. Let's take Venus, for example. Planet? Planet, and what. And her name is Venus, which means " morning Star". This has been going on ever since. But then there were so many so-called "stars", they were divided into dozens of varieties, and it became difficult for astronomers. There was a need for some group celestial bodies rename in a new way to distinguish. This is how a group of planets appeared, but their names remained the same.
So, the Earth in its international designation as a planet is not even called that at all. Its official name is Terra (Terra, Tellus…) Remember common expressions like “terra incognita” and so on. Thus, it is much easier to study the interstellar world anywhere on our planet, scientists from different countries speaking completely different languages. But we ourselves call our planet Earth. Why is that?
The fact is that once people did not know anything about the planets and sincerely believed that our Earth was flat. Remember the pictures from books on history, geography, astronomy. Variants of human representations were different. Some believed that the Earth is a disk held by three elephants. Others - that this is a flat body located on the shell of a sea turtle standing in the water. Or even that it is carried across the ocean from place to place by a huge whale, but the shape of its habitat in the beliefs of different peoples of different times remained unchanged: flat, thin, wide and ... low. And here it is, the main word, from which the name of our planet originates. The fact is that in the common Slavic group of languages, the root of the word Earth means the following: “bottom”, “floor”, “below”, “soil”, “earth”. That is, if people imagined our planet as a kind of huge "earth pancake", then, accordingly, that is exactly what they called it, in the meaning: "the earth below", "the soil under their feet", "a flat low plate".
By the way, the British are not far from us in this. In English, Earth is Earth. And now we look at the meaning of the word erda, from which the name was formed. This is exactly - "soil", "soil". And, by the way, it was the English name of our planet that has been original since the fifteenth century. The rest of the experts used the concepts of Ancient Rome and Greece to name this celestial body.
You can either write your own.
It is so nice to know that the planet Earth turned out to be the most suitable for various forms of life. There are ideal temperature conditions, enough air, oxygen and safe light. It's hard to believe that this never happened. Or almost nothing but a molten cosmic mass of indeterminate shape, floating in zero gravity. But first things first.
Explosion on a global scale
Early theories of the origin of the universe
Scientists have put forward various hypotheses to explain the birth of the Earth. In the 18th century, the French claimed that the cause was a cosmic catastrophe resulting from the collision of the Sun with a comet. The British assured that an asteroid flying past the star cut off part of it, from which a number of celestial bodies subsequently appeared.
German minds have moved on. The prototype of the formation of the planets of the solar system, they considered a cold dust cloud of incredible size. Later it was decided that the dust was red-hot. One thing is clear: the formation of the Earth is inextricably linked with the formation of all the planets and stars that make up the solar system.
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How has the surface of the earth changed?
Today, astronomers and physicists are unanimous in their opinion that the universe was formed after Big Bang. Billions of years ago, a giant fireball exploded into pieces in outer space. This caused a gigantic ejection of matter, the particles of which possessed colossal energy. It was the power of the latter that prevented the elements from creating atoms, forcing them to repel each other. This was facilitated by the high temperature (about a billion degrees). But after a million years, space has cooled down to about 4000º. From that moment, the attraction and formation of atoms of light gaseous substances (hydrogen and helium) began.
Over time, they clustered into clusters called nebulae. These were the prototypes of future celestial bodies. Gradually, the particles inside rotated faster and faster, building up temperature and energy, causing the nebula to contract. Having reached a critical point, at a certain moment it started thermonuclear reaction, which contributes to the formation of the nucleus. Thus the bright sun was born.
The emergence of the Earth - from gas to solid
The young luminary possessed powerful gravitational forces. Their influence was the reason for the formation at different distances of other planets from clusters space dust and gases, including the Earth. If we compare the composition of different celestial bodies in the solar system, it will become noticeable that they are not the same.
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Center and mantle of the Earth
Mercury is primarily made up of a metal that is most resistant to solar radiation. Venus, Earth have a rocky surface. And Saturn and Jupiter remain gas giants because of the greatest remoteness. By the way, they protect other planets from meteorites, pushing them away from their orbits.
Formation of the Earth
The formation of the Earth began according to the same principle that underlay the appearance of the Sun itself. This happened about 4.6 billion years ago. Heavy metals(iron, nickel) as a result of gravity and compression penetrated into the center of the young planet, forming the core. The high temperature created all the conditions for a succession nuclear reactions. There was a separation of the mantle and the core.
The release of heat melted and ejected light silicon to the surface. He became the prototype of the first bark. As the planet cooled, volatile gases broke out from the depths. This was accompanied by volcanic eruptions. Molten lava later formed rocks.
Gas mixtures were kept at a distance around the Earth by gravity. They made up the atmosphere, at first without oxygen. Encounters with icy comets and meteorites led to the emergence of oceans from vapor condensate and melted ice. The continents were separated, reunited, floating in a hot mantle. This has been repeated many times for almost 4 billion years.
The fact that the Earth revolves both around its axis and around the Sun, our natural luminary, today there is no doubt among any of the people. This is an absolute and confirmed fact, but why does the Earth spin the way it does? We will look into this issue today.
Why does the earth spin on its axis
Let's start with the very first question, which is the nature of the independent rotation of our planet.
As for the answer to the question why the Earth rotates counterclockwise, and not along it, there is no actual confirmation of this fact as such. However, it is worth noting that most of the bodies in our solar system rotates in a counterclockwise direction. That is why this condition also affected our planet.
In addition, it is important to understand that the Earth rotates counterclockwise only on the condition that its movement will be observed from north pole. In the case of observations from south pole, rotations will occur differently - clockwise.
Why does the earth revolve around the sun
As for the more global issue related to the rotation of our planet around its natural star, we considered it in as much detail as possible in the framework of the corresponding article on our website. However, in short, the reason for such a rotation is the law gravity, which acts in space as it does on Earth. And it lies in the fact that bodies with a larger mass attract less "weighty" bodies to themselves. Thus, the Earth is attracted to the Sun and rotates around the star due to its mass, as well as acceleration, moving strictly along the existing orbit.
Why does the moon revolve around the earth
The nature of the rotations natural satellite we have also already considered our planet, and the reason for such a movement is of a similar nature - the law of universal gravitation. The Earth, of course, has a more serious mass than the Moon. Accordingly, the Moon is attracted to the Earth and moves along its orbit.
