planets

vietnam5

my 11 year old asked me why the planets are round.Any answers.

NUTZZ

All of the planets are round because of gravity. When our solar system was forming, gravity gathered billions of pieces of gas and dust into clumps which grew larger and larger to become the planets. The force of the collision of these pieces caused the newly forming planets to become hot and molten.

The force of gravity, pulled this molten material inwards towards the planet's center into the shape of a sphere. Later, when the planets cooled, they stayed spherical. Planets are not perfectly spherical because they also spin. The spinning force acts against gravity and causes many planets to bulge out more around their equators.

hytrogen

God wanted to play Michael Jordan in Space Jam & ran out of balls.. :-P

I thought gravity was supposed to be everywhere... so why is it not in space (only gravity near planets or other objects). Or is it just alot weaker in space and greater near the planets etc.

What causes gravity?

BULLER

rockdrummer4 wrote: »

I thought gravity was supposed to be everywhere... so why is it not in space (only gravity near planets or other objects). Or is it just alot weaker in space and greater near the planets etc.

What causes gravity?

Gravity is one of the 4 forces of nature.

Its postulated to be caused by subatomic particles called gravitons, inside atoms. Atoms make up matter; physical objects like planets and everything including you!

Therefore, where there is matter, there is also gravity.

Space is generally a vacuum, a lack of matter. Planets are massive and have a lot of gravity!

When orbiting the Earth, astronauts are in a constant state of falling toward the Earth, because their craft has mass and is being pulled down by the Earth. But because the Earth is round and they are travelling so fast, they will never actually hit the ground.
They feel like there is no gravity because they're dropping at the same speed as the Earth is pulling.

I think this is why you think there is no effect of gravity in space. Hope this helps.

BULLER

BULLER wrote: »

Gravity is one of the 4 forces of nature.

Its postulated to be caused by subatomic particles called gravitons, inside atoms. Atoms make up matter; physical objects like planets and everything including you!

Therefore, where there is matter, there is also gravity.
Space is generally a vacuum, a lack of matter. Planets are massive and have a lot of gravity!

Thank you, I had been thinking about this for a while and that clears it up nicely