Our planet is not a perfect sphere, scientifically speaking it is an oblate ellipsoid, that is, a sphere flattened at the poles, the equatorial radius measures 6,378 km while the polar radius is slightly shorter, it measures 6,357 kilometers, the difference is only of 21 km is something minimal, only 0.3%, which is why on a cosmic scale seen from space it is often said that the Earth has a spherical shape.
On a human scale, it is enough to look around us to verify that it is neither a sphere nor a perfect oblate ellipsoid, there are Valleys, mountains, ocean basins, canyons, plateaus, various geographical features and each feature of the landscape tells a different story. , a story of events ranging from the gentle but constant sedimentation to the colossal movements of the continents that generate mountain ranges.
They are landscapes that we can see thanks to our eyes, but what if we could see gravity, every massive object has gravity, dense objects more and lighter ones less, they are small nuances that can only be detected with very sensitive devices, but what would happen? if we could see those nuances to the extreme and contemplate the landscapes of the earth with the eyes of gravity.
The above is a high-precision view of the earth's gravity published in 2011, thanks to the work of two years of collecting data from the European space agency's Gogo satellite, scientists to make this graph have taken a geoid of the Earth as if it were a perfect ideal global ocean without tides or currents formed and altered solely by gravity, on that ideal surface gravity distortions are reflected magnified in the animation.
The blue colors represent low values, where there is less gravity, and the red and yellow colors represent high values, where there is more gravity. Seen with the eyes of gravity, the earth looks like a potato, but what is all this for?
This vision gives clues to scientists about the past and present of the Earth, it has various uses, from helping to understand how ocean currents and climate work to better understanding the interior of the planet, for example, the gravity data of the enjoyment of this satellite that has made this graph are helping to understand the processes that trigger earthquakes, since earthquakes alter the land masses and create characteristic signatures in the gravity data, something that perhaps in the future will help us to predict earthquakes.
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