If I told you that in another
universe, Earth could be shaped like a donut?
Well, you'd probably think I'm crazy, but theoretically, it could happen.
This alternate earth might also be squeezed into the shape of a dumbbell.
Or it could even be flat.
Okay, maybe that one's a bit harder to pull off,
but Earth could be many strange and different shapes.
Today, I'll take you through seven of the weirdest possibilities.
Some shapes can be incredibly dangerous,
while others might be better in some ways than what we have now.
Number seven Donut Earth
on a donut Earth or a Taurus
shaped earth as the science community likes to call it.
Gravity would be very different depending on where you're standing.
You could weigh up to three times less than what you weigh right now.
Our current round earth has a surface gravity of 1 G,
but things would be a bit different on a donut earth.
At the poles, the surface gravity would be 0.65 G's
while near the equator, it would only be .03 G's.
You'd feel like you're bouncing around on Mars.
Also, the moon would act strange.
It could behave in two different ways.
It might be pulled toward the hole and bob up and down in the middle like this.
Or it might be affected by the gravity of the donuts
outer edges and create this figure eight movement.
This would affect the ocean tides and cause unstable
water levels destroying cities that sit on the coast.
The weather in certain parts of the planet would also be extreme.
Massive hurricanes and storms would be wreaking havoc.
Now, despite these problems, it would still be possible
for humans to survive on this planet.
Sure, some places would be inhospitable and it might be hard to travel
due to the low gravity.
But we could live here.
Number six, Dumbbell Earth.
Okay, this next planet falls a little further
into the realm of science fiction, but let's go check it out anyway.
This is Dumbbell Earth.
It's two separate planets connected by a narrow middle section.
The gravity in this part would be significantly weaker.
The middle section
would essentially be being pulled in two directions by the outer planets.
This would create some extreme volcanic activity
which might cause the planets to break apart.
Crossing between the planets would be incredibly dangerous
and in some cases impossible due to the gravity.
Now living on either of the outer earths would feel pretty close
to what we have now.
They'd have similar gravity, weather and atmosphere.
The main difference would be that each
earth would have different cultures and technology.
They might evolve differently and contain completely different species.
Number five, Ellipsoid Earth.
Okay.
This kind of earth would be egg shaped, not the sphere that we're used to.
It would still be habitable, but there'd be some major differences
from how we live now.
Gravity would be stronger or weaker, depending on where you stood
on the planet.
The more narrow parts of the planet would have the strongest gravity,
and the wider sides would have weaker gravity.
You'd also notice some differences in the weather.
Places along the equator would have a broad range of tropical,
milder temperatures, and places near the polar regions would be much colder
and have more extreme temperatures than what we're used to.
But overall, apart from a few differences,
a planet like this would be very livable for us humans.
Number four, flat Earth.
Okay, before we have some fun
talking about a flat earth, let's make something crystal clear.
A flat planet is impossible
and we definitely don't live on one.
Gravity naturally shapes massive celestial bodies into spheres.
So a flat earth would completely alter our understanding of gravity.
And it's just impossible.
But living on a flat earth, the air pressure would be a major concern.
Gravity would draw too much air toward the Earth's center,
leaving the areas around the edge with no air pressure at all.
If you lived in Australia, you wouldn't have enough oxygen to breathe.
And if you lived closer to the Arctic, you'd be crushed by the weight of the air.
You would also have to consider that a flat earth wouldn't have a core
and therefore no geomagnetic field to protect us from solar winds.
Everyone would get a serious case of radiation poisoning from the sun.
Number three, Cube Earth.
Earth now has six sides.
Unfortunately, none of them are any fun.
That's because walking on them would feel like you're constantly
climbing up a super steep hill on this cubed earth.
Gravity is strongest at the center of each of its faces.
So the further you are away from the center, the more you'll feel its pull.
But maybe you won't notice it.
After all, you'd only be able to live near the center of each of its sides.
That's because due to this earth's gravity,
all the water would be pulled into the planet's multiple centers.
The edges would be rocky and barren,
unable to support any kind of life.
It would also make traveling to the other sides of the planet
incredibly difficult or impossible.
People on different sides would likely evolve in different ways,
and each side would have a different climate and weather.
A side that doesn't get much sun might be incredibly frigid,
whereas a side that gets lots of sun would look a lot different.
Number two, Hollow Earth.
Now, some of the planet shapes we've seen on this list
are theoretically possible, but a hollow earth is anything but that.
Gravity would force the hollow Earth to collapse on itself,
essentially creating a smaller sphere.
But let's assume that didn't happen.
Well, there still wouldn't be any life because there'd be no atmosphere.
Yeah, there would be no magnetic field because our core would be hollow.
No magnetic field equals no atmosphere.
And not having an atmosphere would mean a ridiculous amount
of solar radiation from the sun would be frying us.
Plus, if you somehow managed to land
on this planet, well, you'd instantly fly off a hollow
Earth's gravity would be so weak that nothing could stick to it.
This planet's shape kind of sucks.
Next.
Okay, for this
last one, we're going to cheat a little bit.
What you're looking at here is known as an Alderson disc.
It's like a DVD version of Earth, and it's less of a theoretical planet
shape and more of a megastructure that could possibly be created.
But we'd need a ridiculous amount of materials.
You'd likely need to mine the entire wealth of minerals from planets
like Earth, Mars and a few others,
making them completely uninhabitable.
And this disk would be massive,
able to house billions and billions of people.
It would be 241 million kilometers wide.
For reference, the circumference of Earth
is just 40,000 kilometers.
But the people living on this Alderson
disc would only be able to live in the middle of the band.
Closer to the hole near the sun would be extremely hot
and the edges of the disk would be incredibly cold.
There's also
another major issue with this megastructure.
Since it's so big, there's the chance that the disk
could collapse in on itself and create a black hole.
Yeah.
I don't think I like this one now.
Maybe instead of contemplating these crazy shapes of alternative earths,
we should appreciate what we have right now.
Maybe in the future it'll progress in all sorts of interesting ways,
like maybe becoming a Type seven civilization.
But that sounds like a story for another.
What if.