Earth mass

As Earth's mass ( M ⊕ short, sometimes ME ) refers to the mass of the planet Earth. The mass of the Earth is an astronomical unit and is about 5.9736 x 1024 kg. Nearly 70 percent of them account for the Earth's mantle. The density of the Earth's core is higher, resulting in a lower moment of inertia for the Earth's rotation results than when viewing a homogeneous solid sphere would be expected.

This size is often used to describe the weight of the planet with respect to the earth. It plays an important role in addition to astronomy in geodesy, physics and space travel.

The determination of the mass of the Earth M ⊕ can only be done together with the gravitational constant G, which can be determined only at 4 to 5 significant digits present ( G = 6.674 · 10-11 m³ / kg · s ²). In contrast, the product G · M ⊕ can be calculated much more accurately with the methods of satellite geodesy (G · M ⊕ = 3.9860042 · 1014 m³ / s ²).

As part of the determination of this value, the mass of the Earth can be considered as a constant, because any possible play their mass increases until well beyond the 8th decimal place. For mass increase primarily include around 40 tonnes of meteorite dust that fall to earth every day, to mass loss the escape of light gases (especially hydrogen) from the upper atmosphere into space.

• Earth (planet )
• Geodesy
• Astronomical unit
• Unit mass