What If Planets Were Cubes or Triangles?

0:00This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in. With a full lineup of non-alcoholic beer styles, you can enjoy bold flavors all game-long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stuck the fridge for tip-off with a variety of non-alcoholic craft styles available at your local grocery store or online at AthleticBrewing.com. Share beer, fit for all times. Have you ever wondered why all planets are perfectly round?

1:04And what if these celestial bodies decided to break the rules and change their shape? Would we end up with square planets, triangular moons, or maybe even intergalactic shapes we can't even imagine? Well, let's find out. So how do planets form in the first place? The universe is filled with swirling clouds of dust and gas. These clouds, called molecular clouds, consist of various elements and compounds, such as hydrogen, helium, carbon, oxygen, and so on. They're like a cosmic kitchen filled with the ingredients needed to cook up some brand new planets. The first step in the recipe for planetary formation is called the accretion theory. Let's say that something happens that causes gravitational instability, like a supernova goes off nearby or something. This pushes the gas and dust in the cloud and causes them to come together. Because of gravity, these particles start falling toward a central point. They become more tightly packed together, like when you squeeze a ball in your hand.

2:06And eventually, they're squeezed so hard that the cloud starts to flatten into a disc shape, kind of like when you mix flour and water to make pizza dough. This disc is called a proto-planetary disc. It's also spinning because the cloud's particles had some rotation to begin with. Now, imagine these tiny dust particles and gas molecules dancing around in the disc. Sometimes, they bump into each other. And when they do, they stick together like velcro. These little clumps of dust and gas are called planetesimals. They're the building blocks of planets. And as the planetesimals continue to collide and merge, they grew larger and larger, forming proto-planets. The proto-planets were getting serious about their size, and their gravity became stronger. Some of them got so massive that they became the grandmasters of their cosmic neighborhoods. The planets we know and love. Each planet had its own unique recipe of gases, rocks, and sometimes even water. But why do the planets look like spheres?

3:08Well, it's all because of gravity. Let's go back to our proto-planets. Imagine you're squeezing a balloon with your hands. The air inside of the balloon pushes back, creating pressure. Something similar happens with planets. Gravity squeezes its material inward, pulling in towards the center. And since gravity acts equally in all directions, it pulls material from all sides toward the center of mass, resulting in a sphere-like shape. And that material pushes back with pressure, resisting the force of gravity. In the end, they both find a sweet spot where they balance each other out. It's called hydrostatic equilibrium, a fancy term that means everything inside a planet is in balance, but that's not all. Another thing that makes the planet spherical is their rotation. Think about a ball of play-doh or something like that. Imagine you spin it rapidly. The material starts to push outward, making the play-doh bulge at the equator and flatten at the poles.

4:08The same thing happens to planets, as they spin on their axes. The combination of gravity and rotation pushes the material outward, making the planet bulge at the equator. They low-key want to become discs again, however gravity doesn't want any lumpy planets. It wants them to be nice and round, so it keeps pulling on the material, trying to make everything as compact as possible, eventually gravity wins, and the planet settles into a spherical shape. This takes some examples from our planetary playlist. Jupiter, the giant of the solar system, loves to show off its ablateness. It spins so fast that it becomes noticeably squished at the poles and chubby in the middle. It's like a spinning top with a cute belly. Saturn, the ringed wonder, also joins the oblate party. It spins around with its beautiful rings, and its ablateness is even more pronounced than Jupiter's. These examples show how rotation can give planets a unique shape. They go from being perfectly round to having a delightful bulge around the middle.

5:10It's like cosmic pottery, where the spinning motion creates a playful and distinct shape. So now you know why the planets are round. But what's more interesting is, what if they weren't? What if they were, let's say, cubicle, or even triangular? Well, let's see. A cube shaped or a triangle shaped planet would have its mass spread out in a completely different way than a sphere. You know what that means? Gravity would be all shook up, too. On a spherical planet, gravity pulls everything towards the center because the mass is evenly distributed around that center. But when we introduce a cube shaped or triangle shaped planet, things get interesting. If you're standing at the center of one of those faces, you'd feel the strongest pull of gravity. That's because the faces are the closest to the center of gravity. And as you venture away from the center and start walking towards the edges, gravity starts playing tricks on you. You would feel the struggle against the steep angled gravity. Walking on those edges would feel just like climbing a mountain or walking on a super

6:12steep slope, all because gravity wants you right in the middle of the face and nowhere else. Now imagine the terrain along the edges and corners. It's a barren, rocky, and dry landscape. Why? Well, all the water would pull in at the center of each face, leaving the edges high and dry. And the air quality? Well, it's either non-existent or so thin that it can't support life. Not the coziest place to set up camp, that's for sure. And don't forget your warm clothes, lunch, and hiking boots. You'll need them because of the crazy climate. The type of climate you'll encounter on our cube or triangle shaped earth depends on how it spins. If it rotates at its corners, each side would enjoy a mild, temperate climate. However, if it rotates on an axis through two of its faces, things get intense. Picture a roller coaster version of our current climate. Some faces would be polar wonderlands, icy and chilly. The top and bottom faces for the cube, and the bottom face for the triangle.

7:12Meanwhile, the other sides would be completely different. In a cube, they would be scorching hot with an equatorial climate that would make you break a sweat. Instead of sunlight gently curving along the surface, it would directly beam onto these faces, talk about feeling the heat. And on a triangular planet, the sunlight would strike the faces at an angle. This angled sunlight would create fascinating temperature variations across the planet. Imagine this, as you move from the base of the triangle towards the tip, the temperatures would gradually decrease. The base, where the sunlight hits most directly, would be the hottest region, just like the equatorial climate we're familiar with on our spherical earth. But as you venture towards the tip, the angle of sunlight would be less direct, leading to cooler temperatures. But the base is still super cold and dark, since the sunlight doesn't directly reach it. So the triangle would be absolutely crazy in terms of temperature changes in climate zones. By the way, you know that cozy blanket of air we call the atmosphere?

8:14Well, on our angular earth, things would get a little topsy turvy. Gravity would be pulling stronger from the center of each face? The result? The atmosphere would go through some crazy changes. Picture this. At the center of each face, where gravity is strongest, the atmosphere would gather and thicken. It would be like a bustling city, full of air molecules. But as you venture towards the edges, things would start to thin out. The atmosphere would become scarce and very thin. So breathing along the edges would be quite a challenge, and the edges would be a tough neighborhood for life to thrive. Moreover, a thinner atmosphere means less protection from the sun's radiation and solar winds. So corners and edges would be extremely dangerous for humans. Of course, this is all just a playful exploration of what could be. Our Earth loves its spherical shape, and that's a good thing. But there's no harm in imagining wild and wonderful possibilities. So keep your imagination soaring and continue to marvel at the marvels of our amazing planet, however it may be shaped.