How does gravity shape our planet?

Gravity is the reason we stay on Earth and why our planet has its shape.

Imagine you have a big ball of playdough, that’s like Earth before it was formed. Gravity is like your hand gently pushing everything toward the center of the ball. Gravity pulls all the bits of Earth together, making it round, just like when you roll out playdough and it becomes a smooth ball.

When two big pieces of land, like two giant blocks of clay, crash into each other, they push up to make mountains. Gravity helps shape these mountains too. It’s like when you press your hands together on the playdough, the dough pushes up in the middle, making a hill or mountain.

You feel gravity every day, it’s why you don’t float off into space! When you jump, gravity pulls you back to the ground. It also keeps the air around us and helps water flow from the mountains down to the sea, like how water flows from a tall glass to a short one.

Without gravity, Earth would be more like a pile of sand, not round, not shaped, and we’d all float away!