Bizarre Earth Facts That Are Leaving Us With An Uncomfortable Feeling

Humans still haven't discovered a planet that compares to the beautiful, blue marble we call home. And yet, cozy buildings and WIFI connections have kept us disconnected from nature, making it easy to forget just how freaky our world really is. Take a moment to get in touch with your inner Earthling — and change the way you see home — by considering these world-altering facts about our 4.54 billion-year-old planet.

Traveling Through Space at 67,000 MPH

When we picture the Earth orbiting the sun, we often think of the model we've seen in elementary school: a stationary star with various planets orbiting around in neat circles. But we forget that the sun itself is also moving, making our solar system more like a collection of spinning asteroids shooting through space at a whopping 67,000 miles per hour. Don't worry — it's nearly impossible for us to collide with another system. At least not for another few billion years...

Spinning at 1,000 MPH

As the Earth spins around the sun, it also spins on its axis at 1,000 miles per hour. That's about double the speed of a commercial airplane! If we stopped spinning, earthquakes and tsunamis would rock the planet, then the sun would bake Earth on one side while the other side froze over. Even if we managed to start spinning again, the atmosphere would continue to rotate. Feeling dizzy yet?

Earth is NOT a Circle!

Sorry, but it's not flat, either. The Earth is actually closer to a sphere, if that sphere were flattened and stretched out at the equator. Why the bulge around the middle? It comes from the gravity produced by the planet's rotation around the sun. The shape of Earth is referred to as an "oblate spheroid."

Basically a Giant Magnet

The north and south poles of Earth align with the planet's magnetic field, which reaches thousands of miles into space. This "magnetosphere" is believed to exist due to the Earth's molten outer core, which produces enough electricity to magnetize solar winds to the Earth's surface. Thankfully, these winds protect us from the sun's radiation. Without this built-in planetary sunblock, scientists believe we'd look a lot more like Mars, barren and torn apart by UV exposure.