Earth, also known as the World, Terra, or Gaia, is the third planet from the Sun, the

densest planet in the Solar System, the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial
planets, and the only celestial body known to accommodate life. The Earth's biodiversity
has evolved over hundreds of million years, expanding continually except when
punctuated by mass extinctions. It is home to over eight million species. There are over
7.2 billion humans who depend upon its biosphere and minerals. The Earth's human
population is divided among about two hundred independent states that interact
through diplomacy, conflict, travel, trade, and media.
According to evidence from sources such as radiometric dating, the Earth was formed
around four and a half billion years ago. Within its first billion years, life appeared in its
oceans and began to affect its atmosphere and surface, promoting the proliferation of
aerobic as well as anaerobic organisms and causing the formation of the atmosphere's
ozone layer. This layer and the geomagnetic field block the most life-threatening parts
of the Sun's radiation, so life was able to flourish on land as well as in water.[36] Since
then, the combination of the Earth's distance from the Sun, its physical properties, and
its geological history have allowed life to persist.
The Earth's lithosphere is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that
migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. 71 percent of the
Earth's surface is covered with water, with the remainder consisting of continents and
islands that together have many lakes and other sources of water that contribute to the
hydrosphere. The Earth's poles are mostly covered with ice that includes the solid ice of
the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the polar ice packs. The Earth's interior
remains active, with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the
magnetic field, and a thick layer of relatively solid mantle.
The Earth gravitationally interacts with other objects in space, especially the Sun and the
Moon. During one orbit around the Sun, the Earth rotates about its own axis 366.26
times, creating 365.26 solar days, or one sidereal year.[n 6] The Earth's axis of rotation is
tilted 23.4 away from the perpendicular of its orbital plane, producing seasonal
variations on the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 solar days).
The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite. It began orbiting the Earth about 4.53
billion years ago (bya). The Moon's gravitational interaction with the Earth stimulates
ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt, and gradually slows the planet's rotation.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth