Our planet Earth is one of the nine planets of the solar system, the fifth largest among them and the third in location from the Sun, after Mercury and Venus. In addition to the solar system in our galaxy, according to some estimates, there are from two hundred to four hundred billion stars that have their planetary systems. And all this countless cosmic bodies have one common property - they have a round shape, more precisely the shape of a ball.
This form is most natural in nature due to the force of gravity inherent in all material bodies with mass. As you know, everything around us and we ourselves are composed of atoms, which are affected by various physical forces, one of such forces is gravity. Under the influence of the force of gravity, the atoms of matter tend to the center, while gravity affects homogeneous atoms equally. That is why the heaviest substances and metals are concentrated closer to the core of our planet, and for the most part light gases are present in the stratosphere and exosphere.
Why aren't all objects round in space?
Lighter mass bodies, such as asteroids, are irregular in shape, far from the shape of a ball. The reason is the same - gravity, or rather, not strong enough gravity. Asteroids, although often of enormous size, are still not massive enough to produce their own attractive force.
They are unable to attract substances from space, and therefore unable to accumulate mass over time and go into the category of dwarf planets.An exception can only be asteroids-supergiants with a diameter of 300 kilometers or more, the mass of which is sufficient for the emergence of gravitational forces that can give asteroid a spherical shape over time.
How did the earth become round?
All cosmic bodies, whether stars, planets or asteroids, have formed over billions of years from dust clouds and gas, which, in turn, arose as a result of explosions of stars. There are many hypotheses for the formation of the Earth, but all of them to one degree or another agree that the formation of the planet occurred in the process of concentration of matter around a larger object. Here, the decisive role was played by the proper gravity of this object.
For billions of years, matter was attracted to this object, the mass of which became more and more, respectively, and gravity became stronger. As mass accumulated, the pressure in the center of the planet increased, and with it the temperature rose. As a result, a molten mass of matter formed, which under the influence of gravity took a spherical shape. As a result of these processes, after four and a half billion years, planet Earth was formed.
What form does the earth actually have?
The laws of physics, for the most part, apply both on earth and in space. One of the laws of physics says that when a body rotates, a centrifugal force arises inside it, acting on its atoms in the direction from the axis of rotation.
Since the Earth rotates around its axis, a centrifugal force also appears inside it, which acts in the direction from the axis of rotation from the equator line.It is for this reason that the Earth does not have the correct shape of a ball, but rather the shape of an ellipsoid flattened from the poles. Thus, the diameter of our planet in the region of the poles is 43 kilometers less than the diameter of the planet in the region of the equator line.
Interesting fact: the highest point of our planet is Mount Everest (Chomolungma), its height is 8848 meters above sea level. Everest is located in the Himalayas, located at a considerable distance from the equator. In Ecuador, which is located on the equator line itself, Mount Chimborazo is located, its height above sea level is 6384 meters, which is more than two and a half kilometers below Mount Everest. However, if we consider the height of the mountains not from sea level, but from the central point of the planet, it turns out that Mount Chimboraso is much higher than Everest.
The laws of physics dictate forms to cosmic bodies. Under the influence of the gravitational force, massive bodies tend to take the shape of a ball - an ideal shape for when other forces do not affect the body. One of these forces - centrifugal force, violates the ideal spherical shape of a rotating body, making it elongated to the sides of the axis of rotation. For this reason, the Earth has the shape of an ellipse with a difference in diameter from north to south and from east to west of 43 kilometers.
Bodies with a small mass and gravity are unable to accumulate on their surface substances found in space. For this reason, they have an irregular shape and, even having been in space for many millions of years, they are likely to remain lonely fragments of once large planets.Unless, of course, they meet a planet in their path that they will become a part of. But let this planet not be called Earth!
