Earth
As of 2012 the most used prime meridian for the Earth is the IERS Reference Meridian (IRM). It passes about 5.3 arcseconds east of Airy's transit circle or about 102 metres (335 ft) at the latitude of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London. A current convention on the Earth uses the opposite of the IRM as the basis for the International Date Line.
Read more about this topic: Prime Meridian
Famous quotes containing the word earth:
“Gull, grass and girl
In air, earth and bed
Join the long whirl
Of all the resurrected....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“What potent blood hath modest May;
What fiery force the earth renews,
The wealth of forms, the flush of hues;
Joy shed in rosy waves abroad
Flows from the heart of Love, the Lord.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Since man’s highest mission on earth is to spiritualize everything, it is his excrement in particular that needs it most.”
—Salvador Dali (1904–1989)