Earth, third planet from the Sun, derives its name from Old English. To the Romans the Earth goddess was Tellus, to the Greeks it was Gaia. Not until Copernicus in the 16^th Century was it understood that the Earth was just another planet. First fully mapped in the 20^th Century and only viewed in its entirety from space in the 1960’s.

71% of the surface is covered with water, the only known water in the Solar System. The land masses float on a core of molten iron, hotter than the surface of the Sun. The only place in the Universe known to sustain any life form. Reports of intelligent life are probably exaggerated. Earth has one moon - the Moon.

The earth and Moon in winter and summer