PlanetSolar system
Earth
Our ocean-rich home: the only world known to harbour life, watched continuously from a million miles away by NASA’s DSCOVR spacecraft.
- Planet type
- Terrestrial
- Mean radius
- 6,371 km
- Distance from the Sun
- 1 AU · 149.6 million km
- Day length
- 23 h 56 min (sidereal)
- Orbital period
- 365.25 days
- Surface temperature
- About −88 to 58 °C
- Moons
- 1, the Moon
- Atmosphere
- Nitrogen and oxygen
Earth from deep space
DSCOVR sits at the Sun-Earth L1 point and its EPIC camera photographs the entire sunlit hemisphere in natural colour. The view below updates from NASA’s archive; choose a frame to linger on a moment.
From the latest available day
One day, seen from afar
Imagery and timestamps from NASA’s DSCOVR EPIC API. Natural-color frames are available when the spacecraft and archive are returning data.
Recent publications
| Year | Paper | Journal | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Global Carbon Budget 2024 | Earth System Science Data | DOI |
| 2024 | The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth | BioScience | DOI |
| 2025 | Ocean heat content in 2024 | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | DOI |
| 2025 | Record High Temperatures in the Ocean in 2024 | Advances in Atmospheric Sciences | DOI |
| 2025 | State of the UK Climate in 2024 | International Journal of Climatology | DOI |
Compiled 20 October 2026. Links resolve to the publisher DOI record.
Worth knowing
Earth is the only world known to harbour life.
About 71% of its surface is covered by ocean.
The Moon steadies Earth’s axial tilt, keeping its climate more stable.
Recommended pop-science media
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Our Planet: From Deserts to Grasslands Netflix
-
1 Hour of Iconic Planet Earth Moments BBC Earth
Videos are embedded from YouTube and load only when you open a card.