Planet in Profile.

• Position: Geographical statistics - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

This spinning clod of dirt, water, and gas we live on doesn't come close to rating as the biggest, baddest planet, even in our own solar system. Jupiter is larger--1,000 Earths could fit inside it. Even on nearby Mars, Mount Olympus is 16 miles high--three times that of Everest.

But for its variety of mountains, plains, oceans, and rivers, Earth remains the place to be in this solar system, producing just the right combination of oxygen, water, sunlight, and land to support both algae and MTV.

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World's Largest Islands ISLAND AREA (SQ MI) Greenland 840,000 New Guinea (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea) 306,000 Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei) 280,100 Madagascar 226,658 Baffin (Canada) 195,928 Sumatra (Indonesia) 165,000 Honshu (Japan) 87,805 Great Britain 84,200 Victoria (Canada) 83,896 Ellesmere (Canada) 75,767 World at a Glance Total area of the Earth 197,000,000 sq. miles (70.8% water, 29.2% land) Equatorial circumference 24,901 miles of the Earth Polar circumference of the Earth 24,855 miles Mean distance from 93,020,000 miles the Earth to the sun Mean distance from 238,857 miles the Earth to the Moon Land use of the Earth's surface 10% arable land; 1% permanent crops; 24% meadows and pastures; 31% forest and woodland; 34% other Highest elevation on Mt. Everest, Asia, the Earth's surface 29,028 feet Lowest elevation...