Earth is a planet that formed around 4.6 billion years ago from a cloud of gas and dust. It is the only planet known to support life. Earth is spherical in shape but slightly oblate, meaning it bulges at the equator. It rotates on its axis once every 24 hours and revolves around the sun once every 365 days. Earth has four major interior layers - crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. NASA studies Earth using satellites to monitor changes to its land, oceans, atmosphere, and climate in order to better understand and predict environmental changes.