How Do Planets Keep Their Shape?

Planets are round because of gravity. Imagine you have a ball of clay, and you keep throwing more clay on it, eventually, it becomes a sphere. Gravity pulls everything toward the center, making planets round like balls.

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Examples

A big ball of playdough squeezed by gravity becomes a round planet.
Throwing more clay on a ball makes it smoother and rounder.
Even Earth has a slight bulge at the equator, like a slightly squished orange.

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Categories: Physics · gravity,planets,space