Why are the Planets almost round?

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Gavin John Hyde said:
Said it before I could, as the earth spins the forces that are immense push the middle part out around its axis, hence the slight bulge when you look at distant pictures of earth from space.
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RUBBISH. rthe bulge is childhood obesity, due to eating too many mcdonalds.:D:D:D.
 
static zap said:
Cosmic Snow balls ,
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6532792753_03636e9c61.jpg
yummy .my favourite .:)
 
i hate coconut.comes in 1st place along with fish. 2nd placegoesto donkey snot, aka mayonaisse.
 
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The Earth is what is called an oblate spheroid, if you were to over exaggerate this shape it would look like a pear. The equatorial bulge is created as the earth spins and to quote basic science it is inertial forced acting against gravity (advanced physics does not use these terms and explains it more indepth), as the equator is the widest point of the spin axis it is also the fastest point at approx 1000mph.

The bulge is not perceptible even on the deep space observatory full image pics, you can though use a computer to accurately measure and reveal the bulge, given the diameter of the Earth is approx 8000miles and the equatorial bulge is about 27miles that gives you a bulge of about 0.3 %.

As others have already posted gravity is what shapes our planets and becomes evident over a certain mass becoming more spherical the larger it is unless effected by external forces that may change this like a collision or even an encounter with a larger mass object whose gravitational field is far superior, oh and running out of fuel like a sun collapsing and exploding.
 
darkwood said:
The Earth is what is called an oblate spheroid, if you were to over exaggerate this shape it would look like a pear. The equatorial bulge is created as the earth spins and to quote basic science it is inertial forced acting against gravity (advanced physics does not use these terms and explains it more indepth), as the equator is the widest point of the spin axis it is also the fastest point at approx 1000mph.

The bulge is not perceptible even on the deep space observatory full image pics, you can though use a computer to accurately measure and reveal the bulge, given the diameter of the Earth is approx 8000miles and the equatorial bulge is about 27miles that gives you a bulge of about 0.3 %.

As others have already posted gravity is what shapes our planets and becomes evident over a certain mass becoming more spherical the larger it is unless effected by external forces that may change this like a collision or even an encounter with a larger mass object whose gravitational field is far superior, oh and running out of fuel like a sun collapsing and exploding.
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I bet you get invited to a lot of parties ;o)))))
 
Of course it's flat at top and bottom , the ice has melted off !
(where " god" was holding it ?)
..melted ice lolly up your sleeve time of year..
 
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It’s an oblate spheroid because it rotates.
Centrifugal force causes it to bulge.
The faster a planet or star rotates, the more pronounced the effect becomes.
If the Earth were to rotate fast enough, it would become virtually flat.
 
One of the key indicators the IAU specify to determine if an object is classed as a planet is if it of sufficient mass to assume a spherical shape, whereby the compression force of gravity can overcome the fluid dynamics of the objects structure and concentrate the mass toward the centre of the object in the most effective manner (a sphere).
Many asteroids are too small to become round and have very irregular shapes.
 
Gravity, tectonic activity, varies forms of erosion.

The outer planets are mainly gas giants. So naturally they are round.



Also there not quite round the plantets tens to be bit squashed and also not very smooth. Some planet I believe Venus off the top of my head but don't quote me show massive cracks from something big smashing into it.
 
Mercury has some odd cracks but the surface is fairly regular, Venus shows a lot of volcanic activity (we think) so cracks would vanish, Earth has the the great rift valley down Africa that is a massive split in the surface, but probably not from a collision, Mars has strange features but no significantly large cracks, the gas giants show no solid surface features, though some of their satellites have large cracks like Enceladus (or possibly Europa always get them mixed up) that appears as a cracked glass surface. Pluto may have been struck at some point based on the Horizons information.
 
Still think Google had a spike in astrophysics searches yesterday. Bet some of you found out about cubic planets. :)
 
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Midwest said:
Still think Google had a spike in astrophysics searches yesterday. Bet some of you found out about cubic planets. :)
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Some of us are keen amateur cosmologists :) I've been fascinated with the cosmos since a young lad. I don't claim to be an expert by any measure but I've read and studied enough to get a grasp of the basics. But everyday I learn a bit more and still get wowed by the details.

The universe is a massive and amazing place and we haven't even scratched the surface of discovery yet.

Just to give you an idea of the immensity, there are more stars in the observable universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches combined, here on Earth. There is a good chance that the majority of those stars have planets orbiting them (hundreds have been detected so far) so imagine how many planets there could be!
 
Astronomy, physics and Quantum weirdness were my subjects of interest and I still enjoy reading up on them, @SWD - yes I get invited to plenty of parties but the women are the nerdy type wearing glasses and tipping them down with a sultry gaze while uttering the word 'MOLECULES!'.

 
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