why are there no SQUARE planets, whats with all of the CIRCLE shapes.?

Question

you would think somebody would have come up with this or triangles, hexagons, etc. tell us why, howcome, and what we can do about this. logical and stupid answers are allowed.

Answer 1

Planets are spherical because of gravity. When a planet is formed and accumulates enough mass, its gravity pulls on all surfaces equally.

Answer 2

That's because of the nature of gravity. You can think of gravity as a force that points inward toward the center of the planet so that every part of the surface is pulled evenly toward the center, resulting in a spherical shape.

Of course, planets are not perfect spheres because mountains and valleys and even skyscrapers are all deviations from the spherical shape. However, as planets get larger, gravity gets stronger, until eventually large objects on the surface are crushed under their own weight. That's why we don't have mountains that are 50 miles high or skyscrapers that are 2,000 stories tall. Planets stay basically spherical because any large deviations get crushed.

Although gravity keeps planets close to spherical, there are other forces that cause deviations from the basic spherical shape. For example, the rotation of the earth once every 24 hours, causes an apparent centrifugal force which creates a bulge at the equator. In fact the earth's diameter at the equator is 7,926 miles while the diameter between the poles is only 7,900.

Answer 3

Planets are round because of gravity's equal distribution from the planet's center. The planets were all soft when they were formed and the even distribution of gravity pulled them into a circular shape... the inner planets were molten rock, while the outer planets are made up of mainly gas - think about how the surface of the ocean is curved from the influence of gravity... this is much like how the the liquid rock was pulled into a circular shape when the planet was molten. The outer planets are much like our atmosphere - it is round just like the planet's surface - and the outer planets are the same, just with much much more dense atmospheres.

Answer 4

I would think it would have to do something with the way they orbit around the sun. But then I guess if the planet was a triangle or something the axis would still go through the middle. Maybe cause a circle is more uniform as well. But then again, who knows why anything is the way it is.

Answer 5

Planets are actually spheres, which is the most logical shape since it's based on the mass in the center of the planet. There is an equal amount of matter around the central point in all directions.

Answer 6

Planets first form as a gas or molten liquid. The gravity within the object pulls the liquid or gas into a ball. As in our solar system the sun cooled a little allowing the inner liquid planets to form crust on the outer layers making the hard surfaces like the land we walk on...on earth

Answer 7

Matter clumps together in ways to preserve energy. It takes more energy to cover a larger surface area. A sphere is a shape that among all others with the same volume, has the smallest surface area.

The rapid spinning of planets is what distorts them into ellipses.

Answer 8

We don't know the whole universe. I believe that there are also square planets and aliens somewhere. We just cannot imagine.

Besides, minerals are actually formed square by nature so there are certainly planets or planet-like things in the universe which are square.

Answer 9

While a cycling planet rounding the centre, rolling stone will cut off all the angles mostly.

Answer 10

yeah... but the possibility of "space rocks" hitting a planet JUST exactly the shape of a square is really small...