It is a well-known fact that the Earth is spherical, but after recent research, scientists claim that the Earth may not have always been spherical.
Scientists believe that in the initial stages, the Earth was not spherical like a ball but rather oblate (oval-shaped with flattened poles).
Previously, scientists thought that protoplanets (newly forming planets around stars) would be spherical. To test this idea, researchers at the University of Central Linkshire attempted to simulate how planets form in a disk around stars.
In this simulation, the newly forming planets were found to be disc-shaped rather than spherical. It is the first time that scientists have observed three-dimensional shapes of planets in a simulation.
Co-author of the research, Dr. Dmitry Estimetalus, said that scientists were surprised to learn that in the initial stages, the Earth was not spherical but rather oblate in shape.
He mentioned that scientists have been studying the process of planet formation for a long time, but they could not see the construction of planets in the way they emerged in the simulation. The conventional understanding was that planets were initially spherical.
Most observable planets appear spherical or at least near-spherical. According to the simulation, in the early stages, the poles of our Earth were almost 0.3%, those of Jupiter were approximately 6%, and Saturn's were around 10% flattened.