Weshalb die Erde wie eine Kartoffel aussieht (Why the Earth looks like a potato)

on March 30 2011, the Web-Portal of the Swiss Television (Schweizer Fernsehen) published a News-Message “Weshalb die Erde wie eine Kartoffel aussieht (Why the Earth looks like a potato)” including a video of the “potatoe-shaped” earth.

The news is about first results from observing the earth and its gravity field with the European Earth Observing Satellite “GOCE”. The results come from scientists of the Technical University of Munich:  the gravity field has never been observed better, and the Earthquake in Japan has distorted the shape of the earth.

http://www.tagesschau.sf.tv/Nachrichten/Archiv/2011/03/31/Vermischtes/Weshalb-die-Erde-wie-eine-Kartoffel-aussieht

More about GOCE see at ESA:

http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPgoce.html