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:
“You’ll never succeed in idealizing hard work. Before you can dig mother earth you’ve got to take off your ideal jacket. The harder a man works, at brute labour, the thinner becomes his idealism, the darker his mind.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“You mean that this little pebble’s been out there hot-roddin’ around the universe?”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Mooch, The Blob, examining the “meteor” that carried the Blob to earth (1958)
“I know that winter death has never tried
The earth but it has failed:”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)