NASA Reveals Stunning New Image Showing Earth Is Not Perfectly Round
memelogia NASA has released a striking new 3D visualization of Earth that reveals the planet's true shape-not as a perfect sphere, but as a geoid, an irregular form shaped by subtle variations in Earth's gravitational field. The colorful image, built using more than 15 years of satellite data collected by 19 spacecraft, exaggerates these gravitational differences by a factor of 10,000 to make them visible.
Scientists explain that the bumps and dips do not represent actual mountains or valleys, but rather areas where gravity is slightly stronger or weaker due to the uneven distribution of mass inside the planet. The model helps researchers better understand sea levels, climate change, ocean circulation, and Earth's interior, while also highlighting that our planet is neither perfectly round nor flat.
Under the pretext that NASA says this is the true shape of Earth, because people no longer believe computer-generated images of the blue planet!!!
This is an admission from them that the images circulating are not real but computer-generated.
The truth is, no, NASA never said that this is the "true shape of Earth" in that sense.
The image in the video (which appears frequently in TikTok and Instagram videos) is a **visualization by NASA of a geoid, not the actual shape of Earth.
What exactly is a geoid?!!
- A geoid is a mathematical (equipotential) surface that represents the shape of the ocean surface if it were affected only by Earth's gravity, without wind, currents, or tides.
The variations in geoid height relative to a reference surface (the ellipsoid) are quite small: approximately from +85 meters (above Iceland) to -106 meters (above southern India)...
In this visualization, NASA has magnified these variations by a factor of 10,000 to make them visible. Without this exaggeration, the Earth would appear almost perfectly spherical.
NASA itself states in the video/visual description:
In this visualization the geoid height is greatly exaggerated, by a factor of 10,000.
This means they are explaining that the shape is greatly exaggerated to illustrate variations in gravity, not to claim "this is the true shape of the Earth."
NASA claims that the Earth's true shape is approximately spherical, or more accurately, an oblate spheroid slightly flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator due to rapid rotation.
Why does the Earth appear stationary in videos from the International Space Station?!
These variations are very small compared to the size of the Earth and are not visible to the naked eye from space.
A geoid is not the physical shape of a planet (its solid surface or topography), but rather a model of gravity. People confuse the two and claim that NASA has "admitted" that the Earth is not spherical, which is incorrect.
In short: The video takes a genuine scientific concept from NASA but adds a misleading phrase ("this is the true shape") to stir controversy. NASA does not say that.
And remember, the Earth is a hemisphere; it is neither flat nor spherical...
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Source: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5660/