Why is the moon, earth, SUN, and most other planets, stars mostly round. Not flat or shape like a pen or egg?

Answer 1

If you follow astronomy like I do they are discovering everyday that the Solar System is not what we thought it was! Our Universe actually may look round/spiral but if you tip it on its side it is pretty flat. The answers relating to gravity are sort of right as well, but scientists have found just recently (few weeks) that some of our planets aren't perfectly round like everybody thought. As we send more cameras into space the more we realize that what we thought was fact...is wrong! Scientists are saying "oops" quite a lot this past year or two! But yes, gravity plays a role, but when you look closely, they are not perfectly round and flat. They have gigantic craters, mountains pointing up so high we can't even imagine it. Our telescopes are getting more powerful as the computer age expands our capability.to see so much better. Its a great field of study, especially today and tomorrow. Things are changing our perspective on what we thought and what we are learning is the truth. The sun may appear round, but it is gaseous so bellows, in and out, with flares and cool spots, same with the storms on Jupiter, they just recently realized that the Big Red Spot MOVES! Yep, science was shocked to learn that the Red Spot moves all over the planet! So study and explore, the Digital Science Channel, and Discovery Channel is what every one should be watching, not The Simpsons, although Bart is a lot more funny. But science is always changing, nothing ever remains the same! Become an exployer of the Universe, and get paid for having fun in discovering new stuff all the time!

Answer 2

The sphere is the simplest shape to form in the vacuum of space. All particles in the universe have a gravitational field. The greater something's mass is, the greater the gravitational field. The stars and planets formed by tiny particles being drawn together by their gravitational fields. As more and more particles came together, the gravitational fields increased and pulled in more particles from all directions. Because the particles were drawn in from all directions fairly evenly, most celestial bodies are spherical in shape. For stars and planets to have other shapes, they would have to have gravitational fields that do not pull evenly from all sides, which is just not how gravity works.
Stars and planets do not necessarily have to be spherical in shape though. Outside forces other than gravity could affect the shape they would take, but because most were formed primarily by gravity, most are spherical.

Answer 3

Because a round shape requires the least energy to maintain. A pen shaped star would be resisting the forces of gravity on the ends atempting to pull all the mass to the center of gravity.

Answer 4

Gravity and inertia in relation to the cores of each of these Celestial Bodies. In order for stars and planets to flatten there would need to be tremendous gravity like if The Earth were in Orbit with a Binary Star and one of those stars was a Black Hole. In otherwords it would take tremendous ammounts of energy to make a Star or Planet look like that.

Answer 5

All these planets were formed from dusty matter which due to gravity took shape of a big shere as it was it rotation aroud its axis in all cases.Occassional mountains on earth surface are due to valconoes ,otherwise surface is smooth spherical mostly like sea surface.

Answer 6

Gravity

Answer 7

Gravity. As the bodies formed the matter equally attracts itself forming a sphere.

But in truth, all spinning bodies are slightly elliptical perpindicular to their axis of rotation (e.g. Earth has a greater circumference around the equator then from the north to south pole).

Answer 8

Celestial bodies are more properly described as "sphereoid" meaning, they are generally spherical but may be somewhat mishappen.

This sphereoidal shape comes about due to gravity. Gravity pulls things in from all directions.

Answer 9

The center of gravity of all the objects you listed is located at the center of them. Thus all the material surrounding that center of mass is pulled towards it, resulting in a spherical shape.

Answer 10

They formed as fluids. Fluids, like a drop of water, tend toward a round shape (surface tension).