‘Potato Earth' Reveals Gravity's Uneven Pull

José J. Fontán Pagán

The shape of the Earth has historically been a point of debate among people since centuries ago. First it was flat, then round, but now scientists have uncovered that it might more closely resemble a potato (in terms of gravitational pull, at least). Scientists developed a graphic that shows how gravity affects both sides of the planet at any given time, and the results show a ‘potato’ planet that looks more like the well know tuber rather than an orange.

This new data will have big implications in terms of climate study as far as how they are approached. In light of this new info, we can explain how various natural disasters came to be, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even landslides. The satellite that captured the images is called Goce, a digital imaging satellite used by the European Union. 

Theoretically, we can assume that the gravitational pull in France, for example, is stronger than that in America, although that hardly explains the gap in height between the two nations. It does go a long way at explaining natural phenomena in those areas with differentiating gravitational pull, and why some natural disasters, as I said before, happen in certain regions and not in others. These new images may one day save countless lives, and in fact, in the most recent images after the Japan earthquake we can actually see that the country moved at least three feet and the area’s gravitational force slightly fluctuated during the tremors before settling down once again.

Ten years ago, this finding might have all seemed like science fiction, but years of hard work and research finally uncovered the true shape of the earth, without the spherical atmosphere surrounding it. The discovery is hailed a result of the congregation of Europe’s best minds and efforts. Thanks to this new achievement, maybe we will revive some of the age old arguments of round versus square and replace them with round versus “slightly potato shaped”.

All jokes aside, I found this article mind boggling when I first saw it on BBC. When you actually see the picture, you can barely tell it is the planet Earth. It looks more like a slowly deflating basketball than a planet, but I guess this where technology has led to. There are colors on the images that depict blue for low gravitational pull and red for high gravitational pull, which makes me question why Americans are not generally taller than the French, since they get hit harder by gravity. I noticed that most of continental Europe is inside the high gravity zone, while most of the Pacific and the Americas are not. Both poles also get a high amount of gravity, although their effect probably is not witnessed as much as other, more densely populated areas. Still, it is a nice little footnote to have nearby next time somebody wants to boast about new discoveries, as surely someone would challenge the notion that the planet is a potato.