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  1. Nov 17, 2024 · Even from space, you wouldn’t detect something important about Earth’s shape: It’s not perfectly round. It’s actually a slightly oblate spheroid, or an ellipsoid. This means it is a little...

    • Big, Small, But All Round
    • Are They All Perfect, though?
    • What About The Other Planets?

    The eight planets in our solar system differ in lots of ways. They are different sizes. They are different distances from the sun. Some are small and rocky, and others are big and gassy. But they're all nice and round. Why is that? Why aren't they shaped like cubes, pyramids, or discs? Planets form when material in space starts to bump and clump to...

    While all the planets in our solar system are nice and round, some are rounder than others. Mercury and Venus are the roundest of all. They are nearly perfect spheres, like marbles. But some planets aren't quite so perfectly round. Saturn and Jupiter are bit thicker in the middle. As they spin around, they bulge out along the equator. Why does that...

    Earth and Mars are small and don't spin around as fast as the gas giants. They aren't perfect spheres, but they are rounder than Saturn and Jupiter. Earth is 0.3% thicker in the middle, and Mars is 0.6% thicker in the middle. Since they're not even one whole percentage point thicker in the middle, it's safe to say they're very round. As for Uranus ...

  2. Sep 7, 2021 · The Earth and all planets are round because when the planets formed, they were composed of molten material – essentially very hot liquid. Since gravity always points toward the center...

    • Namesake. The name Earth is at least 1,000 years old. All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. However, the name Earth is a Germanic word, which simply means “the ground.”
    • Potential for Life. Earth has a very hospitable temperature and mix of chemicals that have made life abundant here. Most notably, Earth is unique in that most of our planet is covered in liquid water, since the temperature allows liquid water to exist for extended periods of time.
    • Size and Distance. With an equatorial diameter of 7926 miles (12,760 kilometers), Earth is the biggest of the terrestrial planets and the fifth largest planet in our solar system.
    • Orbit and Rotation. As Earth orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 23.9 hours. It takes 365.25 days to complete one trip around the Sun. That extra quarter of a day presents a challenge to our calendar system, which counts one year as 365 days.
  3. Nov 15, 2024 · They cause small variations in the strength of Earth’s gravitational field – the force that pulls all objects on Earth downward toward the planet’s center. Earth science, the field that I study, has a branch called geodesy that’s devoted to studying Earth’s shape and how it’s positioned in space. Geodesy informs everything from ...

  4. Oct 4, 2017 · How Do We Know Earth Is Round? Humans have known that Earth is round for more than 2,000 years! The ancient Greeks measured shadows during summer solstice and also calculated Earth’s circumference. They used positions of stars and constellations to estimate distances on Earth.

  5. Jan 10, 2022 · The round, rotating Earth and its features are undeniable, as this rotation explains why Earth bulges at the center, is compressed at the poles, and has different equatorial and polar...

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