{"id":517797,"date":"2026-07-26T11:51:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/?p=517797"},"modified":"2026-07-26T11:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:58:32","slug":"viral-nasa-image-does-not-show-earths-true-shape-but-its-gravity-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/technology\/viral-nasa-image-does-not-show-earths-true-shape-but-its-gravity-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral NASA image does not show Earth\u2019s true shape, but its gravity field"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A striking image shared by <strong>NASA<\/strong> has gone viral on social media after being falsely described as showing the Earth\u2019s \u201ctrue shape.\u201d In reality, the visualization depicts the planet\u2019s <strong>geoid<\/strong>, a scientific model that represents variations in Earth\u2019s gravitational field rather than its physical surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The image is not a photograph and does not show mountains, oceans, or continents with those dramatic distortions. Instead, it illustrates tiny differences in gravity caused by the uneven distribution of mass inside and across the planet. To make those variations visible, scientists exaggerate them thousands of times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Earth is not a perfect sphere. Due to its rotation, it is slightly flattened at the poles and wider around the equator, a shape known as an oblate spheroid. The <strong>geoid<\/strong>, however, is a theoretical surface based on gravity and can be imagined as the level the oceans would reach if they were completely still and extended beneath the continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scientists use the geoid for applications such as satellite navigation, sea-level measurements, and improving the accuracy of global mapping systems. It does not represent the Earth\u2019s actual appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A striking image shared by NASA has gone viral on social media after being falsely described as showing the Earth\u2019s \u201ctrue shape.\u201d In reality, the visualization depicts the planet\u2019s geoid, a scientific model that represents variations in Earth\u2019s gravitational field rather than its physical surface. The image is not a photograph and does not show [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":517798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[40230],"class_list":["post-517797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2aHz","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/IMG_3465.jpeg","dum_api":{"author_name":"Redacci\u00f3n De \u00daltimo Minuto","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-logo-de-ultimo-minuto-96x96.png","categories_name":["Technology"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/IMG_3465.jpeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}