Why do all planets have the same shape?

Question

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I thought of thsi earlier today anyone know why?

Answer 1

if it was a different shape it wouldnt be a planet.

Answer 2

Actually, they don't. Not exactly.

While all planets are vaguely spherical, they each have a differen't "oblateness." Oblateness is how much wider a planet is at the equator than at the poles.

Saturn has the greatest oblateness of any planet. If you look at pictures of Saturn you can probably tell that it is bigger in the middle.

Oblateness is generally caused by the planet's spin. The centrifugal force (or inertia, if you will) pulls the gas of the atmosphere of a planet outwards. The solid material is affected too, but not as much.

As far as why they would be round in the first place? well, imagine that the planets are just forming, so they are made of gas and fluid. If they were shaped any other way, points that were further than others fromm the center of gravity would still have somewhere they could "fall" to. When an object is round, the parts that are on the surface can't get any closer to the center without displacing other material from inside.

Answer 3

Planets are formed out of "debris" floating around in space- asteroids, bit of meteorites, exploded stars etc. They start to cluster together and begin to generate their own gravity around the gravitational centre of mass of all the components. Because of the sheer size and huge forces involved the debris act much like a liquid and become fairly evenly distributed around the centre. You will find that the centre of most planets is the most dense (heavy) materials, I believe the centre of the Earth is molten Iron.

Answer 4

Because of the gravitational pull caused by the matter making up the planet. It pulls equally in all directions thus creating a sphere.

Answer 5

They don't! Sure, they're all spherical, but those spheres are all different shapes. Some are a lot more oblong than others. Just pay attention to details and you'll see they're like snowflakes. No two are the same.

Other than that, you've got a centralized gravitational core which pulls things to it at an equal force in all directions, which creates the general spherical shape.

Wow. I impress myself. I don't even study anything scientific. It's just common sense if you put some attention on the matter.

Answer 6

cos' all sky objects have rotational movement. and at the other case the gravitational attraction is pulling all matter. but both of these are right at the same time. when the rotation is speedy so the mass is clustered to the center.

Answer 7

common thing is they r heavy spheres.
They may be gases,or solids.if u rotate some thing,its a rotation looks round-spin-spherical.Its due to gathering of particles-centripetal forces attraction towards centre.
But no body can reveal the secret behind the driving force behind these planets.

Answer 8

Despite all the simple references to "gravity," science does not know why planets are round (or somewhat round). Galaxies and solar systems are not round. Since planets start out as flat rotating particles, why don't we see planets that have continued that way?

Answer 9

They don't have the same shapes,because some of them are big,some are small.And our Earth's shape is oblique Spheroid.All of the planets don't have the some shapes.

Answer 10

Gravity pulls equally on all parts of the planet toward the center. The ultimate shape if the planet is large enough is always a sphere.

Answer 11

all super bodies are around. the upward push in mass for the bigger products reasons it. The earth isn't "precisely" around. It bulges a splash on the equator because of the fact of spin. that's actual of maximum super bodies, counting on the quantity of spin.