Here is why you should totally celebrate Earth Hour this coming March 29

Mar 15, 2014 21:51 GMT  ·  By
Earth is the only planet in the solar system not named after a deity
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   Earth is the only planet in the solar system not named after a deity

If you're thinking about celebrating Earth Hour this coming March 29, then congratulations. If not, don't fret, as nobody is going to point their finger at you and shake their head in disapproval.

I would, however, like to introduce you to five pieces of information that I hope will serve as a reminder of just how cool planet Earth is, and make you at least think about the possibility to honor it on said date.

Its Name Is One of a Kind in the Solar System

Sure, planet Earth might be the only planet currently known to sustain life, but, as it turns out, there is one other thing that makes it stand out.

This thing is its name. Long story short, our good old planet is the only one in the solar system that does not to sport the name of some ancient deity.

On the contrary, its name, i.e. Earth, is derived from both English and German words. These words are “eor(th)e/ertha” and “erde,” respectively, and they both translate as “ground.”

It's unclear who exactly first started calling our planet by this name, but, undoubtedly, they settled on this moniker because they perceived it as a lump of dirt. A pretty big one, granted, but a lump of dirt nonetheless.

It's Home to a Very Special Place Where Rocks Move on Their Own

This very special place is a dried lake bed known as Racetrack Playa, and it is located in California's Death Valley National Park.

Rocks of various sizes – including some that weigh about 700 pounds (roughly 318 kilograms) – tend to “sail” across this dried lake bed on a regular basis.

Truth be told, nobody has yet seen them move, but they have been observed to change their position and leave a trail in the cracked mud behind them.

Several explanations for this phenomenon have been attempted over the years. Not at all surprisingly, some have even gone as far as to claim that aliens might be the ones to blame.

Because, obviously, there is nothing that our brothers (and sisters, of course) from another planet love more than travel through space and flex their muscles to move a bunch of rocks once they reach their destination.

Not to beat about the bush, the best explanation for the mystery of the Racetrack Playa is that, under certain winter conditions, just enough water and ice set up camp in this area to make it possible for even the lightest of breezes to get the rocks moving.

It's Also Home to Exploding Lakes

Camping next to a lake can be a wonderful experience. Still, it might be a good idea to stay away from the following three bodies of water: Nyos, Monoun, and Kivu.

Lake Nyos sits in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, Monoun is located in Cameroon's West Province, and Kivu lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

These bodies of water are all crater lakes, which basically means that they sit on top of volcanic earth. The magma below Nyos, Monoun, and Kivu releases carbon dioxide into them, and this chemical compound accumulates above the lake bed.

Every once in a while, this carbon dioxide works its way out of the lakes in the form of an explosion. Should somebody chance to be walking around Nyos, Monoun, or Kivu at the time when this happens, they risk being asphyxiated.

It Might Have Been Purple in Its Younger Days

There's a scientific theory that says that early life on Earth was not green, as it presently is, but purple.

Thus, it is said that, in order to harness the energy of the Sun, ancient microbes relied not on chlorophyll, the main photosynthetic pigment of plants, but on another molecule dubbed retinal.

Whereas chlorophyll absorbs chiefly blue and red wavelengths and reflects green ones, retinal, which can still be found nowadays in the membrane of a microbe called halobacteria, absorbs green light and reflects back red and violet.

Together, these red and violet lights form purple, which might have been the color of the earliest life on Earth. It is believed that chlorophyll won on the long run due to the fact that it is more efficient than retinal.

It Gets Sprinkled with Pixie Dust on a Daily Basis

OK, it's not fairy dust in the sense that it has magical properties and can make us happier, luckier or more successful. It's actually cosmic dust, or, if you prefer, interplanetary material.

Specialists estimate that, each and every day, some 100 tons of (let's go for the scientific term here) interplanetary material drifts down to the surface of our planet.

According to brainiacs who have studied the issue, some of this dust is the result of comets having part of their ice vaporized as they near the sun.

So there you have it, five things that make our planet really cool and awesome. Here's hoping that you'll now think of it with a little more wonder, and be sure to tell me in the comments section below if you're going to celebrate Earth Hour two weeks from now, on March 29.

Photo Gallery (5 Images)

Earth is the only planet in the solar system not named after a deity
Rocks at Racetrack Playa appear to move on their ownSome lakes accumulate so much carbon dioxide that they release it by exploding
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