deformed

This July, NASA has made public on its website an interactive and updated image in the way that gravity would give our planet and the result has not left anyone indifferent. The simulation not only moves away from the idealized myth of the perfect, blue sphere, but also goes far beyond what we learned in school about the sphere flattened by the poles. According to this three-dimensional representation from the US space agency, the Earth’s shape has giant lumps and dips and is not uniform at all. And we owe it all to gravity. The geoid. What this NASA simulation shows is an irregular structure with enormous elevations and depressions, similar to a “potato”which is called geoid. This concept is a 3D mathematical model which serves as a reference surface to measure the elevations of the surface of our planet and the intensity of the forces of gravity according to the variations in the Earth’s mass. NASA defines it as an equipotential surface of the Earth’s gravitational field and, therefore, the reference of zero lift. The secret is in the water… To better understand this geoid, we must imagine the effect that gravity would have on the oceans and the enormous masses of earth water if the wind, waves, tides and currents did not exist. That is, if water, which covers 71% of our surfacewas completely still – something only possible in a simulation like this. …and also in gravity. Our planet is a very rugged celestial body whose mass is unevenly distributed. Those variations in density in the Earth’s mantle, such as mountain ranges on one side or valleys and places like the anomaly of the Indian Ocean “hole” in the other, they affect natural forces. They do it by producing changes in the gravitational field attracting water with greater or lesser intensity and causing those prominences and basins that NASA now shows us. Iceland and India, the two extremes. In order to show these differences on the surface, the scientists who designed this image of the geoid have exaggerated its vertical scale. between 7,000 and 10,000 times relative to zero elevationas explained by Heraldo USA. They do it this way because the variations are not appreciated in reality, since they only reach a few tens of meters on a planet whose radius exceeds 6,300 kilometers. The American media reports that, in this way, they have been able to verify that the point with the highest elevation is in Iceland, where the surface would rise more than 80 meters above the zero level. At the other extreme, southern India would sink about 106 meters below the same reference. More than 15 years of data collected by satellite. The development of this fascinating model has been possible thanks to the observation work that 19 space satellites have carried out over 15 years. Among them, according to the NASA website, are the Grace space mission from NASA or GOCE European satellite. Image | POT In Xataka | The paradox of artificial gravity: Einstein told us how to do it, engineering tells us it is almost impossible