I was watching the History Channel for some unknown reasons and an advertisement came out. It was about a documentary called The Universe and it told some fast facts about the universe.

One of them was : " The Earth is not actually a sphere but pear-shaped. "

I was like huh? Pear-shaped?

If I were to comment this, I would say that if the Earth was pear-shaped, the equator would not be as hot as I would feel it right now. ( I live in the hot equator ).

But maybe I'm wrong.

P.S.: The Universe is an awesome documentary, I recommend anyone who loves astronomy to watch it. Oh and yeah, I don't exactly know how they know this.

This is nothing new. In school I was always told the earth bulges some at the equator and is flattened some at the poles.

I see. Thanks for the info!

I guess that is what happens when you have a rapidly spinning ball in space. The earth spins about 1000mph at the equator and is slower the closer you get to the poles so it bulges some.

some researchers are talking about how the earth was a lot smaller in it's early day's, now that they have a detailed map of the ocean, you can see the separation lines between the continents. talk about a flood, the entire surface of earth may have been an ocean at one point and they say the earth is still growing.

http://www.educatedearth.net/video.php?id=2945

at school they said that the Earth is not a Sphere but an oblate spheroid. so nothing new.

Rather like a great big ball of plasticine and then flattened slightly

Does the moon have any influence on maybe why its oblate?

As far as I am aware, the moon influences the tides. Not sure about affecting the Earth's shape though.

never heard of this in all of my life O_o not even in school

The moon has an effect but it isn't enough to make a difference in the shape of the earth.

The equatorial radius is about 13 miles, or 21 km more than the polar radius.

The statement by the OP about temperature and the equator facing the Sun is obviously correct.

But, for stars and perhaps gas giants like Jupiter, it is a little different. The faster rotating main-sequence large stars do bulge at the equator, and that area thus has more radius. So, it cools to a temperature below the higher latitudes.

Like, Altair-

Darker areas of Altair are cooler.

I think the gravity of the Sun has something to do with this, yes, even from 93 million miles away !

Heard a similar event.. on Jupiters satellite, when the satellite is near Jupiter it's somewhat make the satellite oblate and when the satellite drifts away it returns to its normal shape thus creating a friction inside the satellite and makes some volcanoes erupt on the surface



Nope it does not affect the earth's shape in any way.

well the top of earth is slightly smaller that the rest.