The Earth is our home. Water, air and land exist, in just the right quantities and at the right temperature, for life to flourish on Earth. From space, the Earth is a blue planet with swirling cloud systems and complex, brown, continents.

Astronauts say that the Earth looks beautiful from space. The blue oceans and the brown and green hues of the land are revealed in the gaps between the swirling white clouds.

Earth is the third closest planet to the Sun. It has an atmosphere made up of many different gases, mainly nitrogen and oxygen. Earth is the only planet in the solar system that can have eclipses of the Sun. It takes one year to go completely around the Sun. The Earth also rotates, or spins, on its axis once per day. The Earth's axis is not straight up and down relative to the orbit, but is tilted a little bit. This tilt is responsible for the seasons. Otherwise, the temperature would be pretty much the same all year long. It has one natural satellite, the Moon.

Our Earth is one of 9 planets orbiting the Sun. The planets are vast balls of rock, metals, and gases that orbit a star. Other stars may have planets too. A planet is a celestial object which revolves around a star and reflects that star's light.

Weather comprises all the various phenomena that occur in the atmosphere of a planet. "Weather" is normally taken to mean the activity of these phenomena over a period of a few days. The average weather over a longer period is known as the climate. This aspect of the weather is studied with great interest by climatologists, for any signs of Climate change.