Inside Science
/
Article

How Much Does Earth Weigh?

AUG 19, 2021
We can’t put Earth on a scale, but there are other ways to figure out the weight of our world.
Inside Science Contributor
How Much Does Earth Weigh?

(Inside Science) -- The Earth isn’t even close to being the largest planet in our solar system, but it’s also no lightweight, weighing in at a whopping 13 thousand, 170 billion trillion pounds, or 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. To put that into context, a male African bush elephant tips the scale at 13,000 pounds. One trillion elephants would weigh 13,000,000,000,000,000 or 13 thousand trillion pounds, and the Earth weighs 1 billion times more than that! So, how did scientists determine the weight of our world? Since they can’t put Earth on a scale, experts studied the gravitational pull the planet has on other things and used math to calculate its size.

More Science News
FYI
/
Article
Amid concerns about maintaining dark and quiet skies for astronomy, the FCC said regulating the light impacts of satellites is outside its authority.
FYI
/
Article
The response to the OMB’s proposed rule on federal financial assistance appears to be overwhelmingly negative, with strong opposition from science groups.
FYI
/
Article
However, the agency’s proposed rule would remove requirements to keep radiation “as low as reasonably achievable.”
AAS
/
Article
How do you pick a landing site before you know how you’re going to land? The scientists behind NASA’s latest Moon missions are working on just that.
/
Article
/
Article
Researchers don’t need to do science engagement alone. Working with professionals makes the job easier and more effective and can lead to better science.
/
Article
Even a limited nuclear war could disrupt the climate, ecosystems, and global food supplies. Nuclear strategies and decisions should be required to factor in those potential consequences.
/
Article
A dataset of daily ozone concentrations with high spatial resolution enables researchers to identify the reversal.