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Earth is the third planet from the Sun with an approximate distance of 149.6 million kilometres (93.0 million miles), and is traveling nearly 2.1 million kilometres per hour (1.3 million miles per hour) through outer space.
Earth orbits the sun at a distance of 150 million kilometres and the sun orbits the centre of the Milky Way. Specifically, we are in the Orion arm, around 26,500 light years from the centre....
JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the leading center for robotic exploration of the solar system.
Earth is in a relatively quieter part of the Milky Way Galaxy. Our solar system sits in one of the galaxy’s many spiral arms, called the Orion Arm or Orion Spur. Picture the Milky Way as a swirling disk with a bright center and long, winding arms. Earth is nowhere near the chaotic, star-packed center.
Using infrared images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way’s elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars.
Earth is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way (called the Orion Arm) which lies about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the Galaxy. Here we are part of the Solar System - a group of eight planets, as well as numerous comets and asteroids and dwarf planets which orbit the Sun.
Within our solar system, Earth is positioned at just the right location with respect to Sol (our sun) to enable water to exist in all three phases. Sol itself is a stable, middle-aged star with no recent history or inclination to surprise it's planets with radical changes in energy output.
We know that the Earth is located in the Solar System inside the Milky Way galaxy. But where exactly is the Milky Way placed in the Universe? How far away are other galaxies? And what would our cosmic address look like? You’ll find answers in this infographic — check it out to see our location in the observable Universe.
The image of a brightly sun-lit, and vigourously active and “alive” Earth, surrounded by the apparent empty blackness of space, highlights the extraordinary isolation, uniqueness and significant fragility of our planet.
NASA's Earth Information Center allows visitors to see how our planet is changing in six key areas: sea level rise and coastal impacts, health and air quality, wildfires, greenhouse gases, sustainable energy, and agriculture.