Dr.. Hamid Mjool Al Nuaimi *
Planet Earth is one of the very small planets compared to the trillions of planets of similar or different sizes and properties scattered in the universe in general, and in the Milky Way galaxy in particular. God Almighty created the living being to live on its surface, enhanced by the bliss of the various good deeds and the life that God Almighty prepared for this being, “Say: Win on the earth, so look at how the creation began ۚ Then God will see the ritual.”
This planet was born, developed, and formed in its various environments of its atmosphere, seas, and biosphere, and life began on it within this vast universe (the sky and the heavens) composed of nebulae, galaxies, stars, suns, planets, planetary satellites, gases, dust, and smoke, in addition to matter and dark energy, whose secrets we know nothing about except Little, very little within its estimated diameter of 90 billion light years (for those who live on Earth). And in our planet there are billions of trillions of celestial bodies of different size, shape, temperature, density, age, and everything that it contains, i.e. everything that God Almighty created in it. “Indeed, We have adorned the lowest heaven with the adornment of stars.” As-Saffat 6.
And the space between galaxies and between stars is filled with matter consisting of gas, dust and smoke, in addition to dark matter and dark energy, meaning that smoke with gas and dust is available and spread among the various celestial bodies, and therefore we find that the sky is woven with these materials, as God Almighty said in the Holy Book « And the sky with your love.” Al-Dhariyat 7. In other words, the sky is intertwined with galaxies, stars, and all between them of materials composed of gas, dust, and smoke.
And the earth has a diameter of approximately 12,756 km (i.e., it is larger in size and mass than the small rocky planets in the solar system), and the closest celestial body to it is the moon, which is 483,400 km away from it, and it revolves around the earth at a rate of 29.5 days, and this is called the synodic month, knowing that the diameter of the moon is about 3476 km. That is, about a quarter of the diameter of the Earth, and it takes light to travel from the Moon to the Earth for a period of about 1.5 seconds (the mass of the Moon is equivalent to 1.2% of the mass of the Earth, and its volume is equivalent to 2% of the size of the Earth). The earth revolves around the sun and is approximately 150 million km away from it, or approximately 400 times as far as the moon is from the earth, noting that its angular diameter is approximately 400 times greater than the angular diameter of the moon. Therefore, we find that they have the same apparent angular size, and for this reason, when a total solar eclipse occurs, the apparent disk of the moon sometimes covers the disk of the sun completely.
“Have they not looked into the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and the thing that God has created?” Al-A’raf 185. We have talked a lot previously about the earth, but here we will touch on some characteristics for the sake of comparison with the other planets and to show why God Almighty chose it from the other planets for man, animals and plants to live on its surface. .
“And on the earth are signs for those who have certainty.” Al-Dhariyat: 20. The earth is the third planet from the sun, and it is the largest of the inner planets in size. Its diameter exceeds the diameter of Venus by a few hundred kilometers. It is the only known planet in the universe so far on which there is life; This is because it is located at an appropriate distance from the sun and because there is water necessary for the existence of life on it, and it covers most of its surface, meaning that water is everywhere, even in the human, animal and plant bodies, “And We made from water every living thing.”
The Earth has a good atmosphere in which there are clouds, winds, lightning and thunder, in addition to some other weather phenomena. يقول الله سبحانه وتعالى عن الرعد والبرق في كتابه المبين: «هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَيُنْشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ، وَيُسَبِّحُ الرَّعْدُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ مِنْ خِيفَتِهِ وَيُرْسِلُ الصَّوَاعِقَ فَيُصِيبُ بِهَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَهُمْ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي اللَّهِ وَهُوَ شَدِيدُ الْمِحَالِ»، الرعد 12 و13.
The Earth is distinguished among the rocky planets by having a magnetosphere that protects its atmosphere from deadly and burning electromagnetic radiation, as well as from particles of the solar wind. Generating craters (by small solar system bodies).
The earth is very active geologically at the present time, unlike the other planets, and all these beneficial features for life on its surface were created by God, the Almighty, without the other planets, which is the important difference from the rest of the planets and other celestial bodies in the solar system and perhaps in the galaxy and other galaxies and the universe. That is why we called it the planet. mother or home.
* Director of the University of Sharjah, President of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences