Do you recognize it? With its vast blue oceans and green continents, this smiling planet is our home: Earth! It is the third planet from the Sun and, of all the worlds we know, the only one where life has been confirmed. Animals, plants, fungi and humans all share this extraordinarily diverse planet.

Seen from space, Earth looks mostly blue—and there is a good reason for that. Oceans cover about 71% of its surface. Liquid water is one of the essential ingredients for life as we know it. Our planet also has an atmosphere, a layer of gases that gives us the air we breathe and helps maintain temperatures suitable for life. And Earth never stands still: it rotates on its axis in about 24 hours, creating day and night, while one complete journey around the Sun takes a little more than 365 days.

The example for this Coloring Page uses the colors that inspired Earth’s nickname, the “Blue Planet”: blue for the oceans and green for the land. From space, however, continents can also appear brown, beige or white depending on forests, deserts, mountains and ice-covered regions.

Ready to leave our home planet and continue exploring? Next stop is Mars, the famous Red Planet, our neighboring planet a little farther from the Sun. Blue, alive and unique in our known universe—now it’s your turn to bring our amazing planet Earth to life with color!