If you had a super large tape measure that started at the center of the Earth and reached the highest peak of our planet, you wouldn't find Mount Everest as the highest point. Instead, the highest mountain will be on the other side of the world, namely Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
The Chimborazo wins in this regard because the Earth is actually a little squeezed at the poles. The image is like a ball pressed by two hands on the top and bottom. As a result, the equator that is where Ecuador is located will stand out.
Quoted from Live Science, Tuesday (5/4/2022) instead of being a perfectly round ball, the Earth is oblate which means its shape is like a slightly oval ball like an egg. But this oval is only slightly, so at first glance it still looks like it looks perfectly round and is not noticed by everyone. What is clear, the Earth is not flat.
"In fact, most planets and moons are not true spheres. They are usually squeezed in some way or another," said James Tuttle Keane, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, United States.
"So why aren't Earth and the other planets and the Moon perfectly spherical? This is due to something called the centrifugal force or the external force experienced by a rotating object," said Keane.
A rotating planet experiences a centrifugal force. You can also see it in action: if you rotate in a chair or on your feet, you will feel a tug from your center. This may cause you to dislocate your arm or leg.
"Or, if you're sitting on a merry-go-round, there's a little extra force acting on you on that carousel, so you feel pulled aside," Keane describes.
As the planets and Moon rotate, the centrifugal force causes them to bulge at their equator. The effect can be very subtle, but great examples are Jupiter and Saturn.
If you look at a global picture of one of these gas giants, you'll notice that they're slightly pinched and their center is protruding. Keane said, the pinched shape of these planets is more visible because they are the fastest rotating planets in the Solar System. The faster something spins, the greater the centrifugal force acting on it.
An extreme example of the centrifugal force acting on an object is the dwarf planet Haumea. The dwarf planet is in the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy objects beyond Neptune's orbit.
"Haumea is the size of Pluto, but spins so fast, one full turn every four hours, that it's almost shaped like an egg," Keane concluded.