This month's Challenge Question: Specs & Techs from IHS Engineering360:
Earth has sent a team of scientists to explore Gliese 581g,
a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a Red Dwarf and located 20 light-years from
Earth. Upon approach they marvel that Gliese 581g is almost a perfect sphere considering
earlier data. They decide to land in the equatorial region to save fuel. Why?
And the answer is:
The scientists were surprised to learn that Gliese 581g was
spherical because of previous data which had told them that it was spinning
incredibly rapidly. So rapidly in fact that the centrifugal force at the
equator is strong enough to measurably weaken the effect of gravity at its
equator, reducing the fuel needed for landing and lift off.
A similar yet much smaller effect occurs on Earth, where the
rotation at the equator generates a centrifugal force that reduces effective
gravity by one third of one percent.
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