clipped from: www.dw-world.de   

German Scientists: Earth is Smaller than People Think

It's really quite tiny

Researchers at Bonn University have discovered that the blue planet is really smaller than originally thought. The difference might be minute, but it has serious ramifications for climate change research, they say.

Five millimeters (0.2 inches) is less than half the width of an average finger and seems negligible when compared to the earth's diameter of 12,756.274 kilometers (7,926.3812 miles). But German researchers, who participated in an international project, have now found that the globe's exactly five millimeters "thinner" than originally expected.
They said the difference is crucial when it comes to studying climate change.
"It is essential for the positioning of the satellites that can measure rises in sea level," Axel Nothnagel, who led the team of researchers in Bonn, told AFP news service. "If the ground stations tracking the satellites are not accurate to the millimeter, then the satellites cannot be accurate, either."