Earth is not particularly a giant planet compared to its neighbors in the Solar System, in fact, it ranks as high as fifth among the largest planets in the neighborhood. But surprisingly it is the densest planet of all, even more than Jupiter, which is the largest. Reaching this conclusion has not been easy, the path began centuries ago to find out how much planet Earth weighs.
Our planet is not the largest in the Solar System, but surprisingly it is not a light body, how is this possible? The explanation is that it is the largest body among the so-called rocky planets, which are composed of silicate rocks or metals and have a solid surface. Thanks to the composition of its rocky layers, it ranks as the densest body of all.
The largest planets in the Solar System like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are known as gas giants and for a reason; It has a gas density. They are composed mainly of hydrogen, helium and water, therefore they are less dense despite their large size.
With this context, we can now better understand the magnitude of the Earth’s mass, which weighs approximately 5.975 trillion tons and has a density of 5.514 grams per cubic centimeter. As we have said, it is the densest planet, even much more than the Sun, which is the largest body of all. To put this in context, the density of our host star is just 1.41 grams per cubic centimeter and that of Jupiter, the largest planet, is just 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter.
How were they able to determine the weight of the Earth?
To know the unit mass of a body within our planet, scientists developed different devices such as the scale. That is, if you want to weigh a body, just take it to the scale and that’s it, you’ll get its unit of mass. However, we cannot fit the Earth into this instrument, knowing how much it weighs is more complicated than that. So how did they do it?
The way to know the unit of mass of the Earth began centuries ago. In the 18th century they began to study the gravitational attraction that the planet exerts on other bodies such as the Moon. Thanks to complex calculations, they managed to determine this attraction in concrete figures and from there they derived the unit of mass of the Earth.
In other words, the weight of our planet could be determined thanks to the fact that it has gravitational incidences on other nearby bodies. Although it was not an easy path, little by little scientists were getting closer to the figure with greater precision until they concluded that the Earth weighs 5.975 trillion tons.
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