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There’s a cosmological factor called “the potato radius” that determines whether a heavenly body is spherical. Planets and such aren’t roughly spherical because some mystical force rolled them into a ball, it’s because once a body has sufficient mass, the gravity of that mass will tend to pull all the aggregate pieces into an ordered shape. The low number is 200 km and the high number 300 km, and that’s radius, not diameter, so this isn’t even half way to the low number.

Earth isn’t spherical because it’s glued that way, it’s spherical because its mass is so great that its effect on the fabric of space-time forces the conglomeration of loose pieces that comprise it into an ordered shape. The fact that it bulges at the equator is evidence that it isn’t solid because the centripetal force of its rotation is propelling the loose pieces further away from its axis of rotation than those pieces nearer the poles.

Which doesn’t mean asteroids smaller than the potato radius can’t be roughly spherical. It does happen, but purely by chance, not because unseen forces demand it. But the odds of anything other than spherical decline steeply once the radius reaches a minimum of 200 km (about 120 miles), which happens to be the observed lower limit for dwarf planets.


7 posted on 08/01/2026 5:07:10 AM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Paal Gulli

Thanks for the lesson. I learned something new today!πŸ˜€πŸ‘πŸ”­


10 posted on 08/01/2026 8:21:41 AM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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