What is the approximate mass of Earth in kilograms?

The approximate mass of Earth is 5.97 × 10^24 kilograms. The best current estimate is about 5.9722 × 10^24 kg, so the stored answer is an appropriate rounded value.

Earth’s mass cannot be measured by placing the planet on a scale. Scientists determine it from the gravitational effects Earth produces, especially the motion of the Moon, artificial satellites, and orbiting spacecraft. In practice, measurements often determine the geocentric gravitational parameter, which combines Earth’s mass with the universal gravitational constant; dividing by the measured constant gives the mass estimate.

Earth is far more massive than the Moon, with roughly 81.3 lunar masses, but it is tiny compared with the Sun. The Sun has about 333,000 times Earth’s mass. Earth’s mass also includes its atmosphere, oceans, crust, mantle, and core, although the atmosphere contributes only a very small fraction of the total.

The exponent matters enormously: 10^24 means a one followed by 24 zeros. The distractor values differ by factors of 100 or 10,000, not by minor rounding.