Toroidal planets...
 

Would it be theoretically possible for toroidal (donut shaped) planets to exist? I can't imagine how it would be likely to form but from my understanding it would be stable. The local center of gravity of the solid part would not be in the center of the cylinder until you take into account the rotation of the body (axis going throught the hole). So you would end up with a ring of a center of gravity... yes?

Is anybody a physics whizz and can speculate?

Where do you come up with this shit.

First you have a thread "I pood my pants"

Now your trying to discuss theoretical physics? Did you copy this off of some website?

It'd be neat. It'd be like StarTopia. ^^

No I did not copy this off some website, it is something I have been contemplating for some time. I imagine what the seasons would be like...

If the axis of rotation of the torus was paralell to the axis of orbit around the sun then you would have perpetual darkness on the inside rim where the sun is eclipsed by the opposite side of the planet.

Also what kind of moon orbits are possible? Could a moon orbit one part of the torus (dipping though the hole)? Could you have figure eights that pass around both sides of the torus? Could you even have a ring like saturn's that only orbits one side and has the ground pass beneath it so of you looked up you would watch a ring travelling towards you then away every day?

I like you moosie :)

You can be silly and goofy one minute, and downright geeky the next. That is so adorable.

Back on topic -- I dont know anything about anything that you are talking about right now.

here is an example i just whipped up demonstating what I sayed in my last post:

http://www.rollingtank.com/gooba/example.gif

..the sun would be much further away and larger but I just put it in to show that that the angle of the axis is 0 degrees.

That's nonsense.

You could balance gravity and centrifugal force by rotating the thorus but even then half your atmosphere would fly off into space and the other half down to the center. The only way thing wouldwork is if the torus was hollow and the atmosphere (and water) were inside.

Well from a distance it would have a center of gravity at the very middle of the hole, but of course in the center there is no gravity as the matter all around cancel each other out. So you would have local centers of gravity that become more dominant as you get closer, these would be inside the solid part making a ring of a center of gravity. Does this make sense?

Only if you'd put extremely heavy matter (as in neutron stars) into the torus at certain spots, these could then work as local centers of gravity but in between them there'd still be zones where everything would fly off the surface.

i think you took my image above as to scale, the torus would be like 1 000km in (solid part) diamater and the hole would be like 100 000 km in diameter,

and i dont mean "hot spots" where the gravity is strong i just put it that way to make it easier to visualise,

as for things falling off the surface, what is going to be stronger force of gravity, the ground which is directly beneath you or the ground that is 100 000km away?

and for the atmosphere, im not sure whether my theory will include a toroidal atmosphere or one that fills the entire hole as well. (perhaps atmotorus is a better word than atomosphere :))

If the atmowhatever filled the hole you'd have to take its mass (centered you know where) into account as well, meaning it would become even more unstable.

No, it would have to only cover the torus.
If you'd take a very large torus the gravity on the inside would still be lower than on the outside, which could be countered by rotatio, so it could work.

But there's another problem: tidal forces. How far away from its sun would the torus have to be so it won't be torn apart by them?

good point... i have always been doubtful of the existance of moons because of the tidal forces they would exert but never had i consider the sun's effect, im not sure how far it would have to be away... thats the problem i do not know enough physics yet to get some numbers relating the dimensions of the torus and what not.

So to sum up. BigMoosie appears to be very intelligent but acts like a jackass often.

It's the perfect personality for a social outcast.

I don't thinks it's very likely at all.

Following the Ecretion Theory, which states: Stars are born in nebulas (gas/dustclouds) > Gas collects in regions, and begins to concentrate > Large clumps of gas begin to take shape; sperically, and begin to heat up > nuclear fusion begins in the center due to extreme pressures and heat > Star is born.
Then, the star's "solar wind" begins to blow any lighter materical such as gas away to outer regions, and any rocky stuff in left closer to the star.
This is shown through our solar system. You will notice that the rocky planets are in close proximity to the sun as opposed to the large gas giants.

Planets are naturally born after the star, so, by again following the Ecretion Theory. I will use rocks in this case.
Large rocks attract more rocks > over time the large rocks get larger and larger and because their mass is forever increasing, so in their attraction for other matter.
In the center, heat begins to occur, and eventually the gathering of matter will become quite molten.
Now, for example, lets say I take a drink bottle out into space, and squirt some water out...what will initially happen? The water will not become strung out, and have all oblong and weird and exotic shapes. Instead, it will immediately for into a sphere. The same applies towards panet creation.

Like I mentioned above, i cant imagine how it would form because it goes against most conventional planet formation theories. But with so much matter and chaos there must be certain situations that would result in a torus.

If a large amount of matter was spinning on itself fast enough then perhaps it could happen, or if a small star had an asteroid belt the solidified then the star burnt out, then the planet was caught by a larger stars gravity field perhaps that would result in my fantasy world? I dont know, but thats not what I'm really trying to find out, I want to know if it did exist, would it be stable?

As for the water blobbing together, that is because of cohesion, not gravity.

You may be surprised that air bubbles in water can in fact be created as a torus shape, here is an article on it: http://www.newscientist.com/article....mg18124346.400 . If this had not been physically done it would be presumed impossible, just like most people presume that torus planets are impossible.

EDIT: Here's a pic of one:
http://members.aol.com/imfor88/mikering2.gif

I'm going to bed so somebody take over my case for me while im gone :)

Yeah me too. It's 11:36 here. I'm to tired to debate. :)

I'll take over your case for you.

"Your honor, we move to drop this case and plead guilty to insanity"

It is true, you are a funny fella chev,

Cant fucking sleep so I come here to see what you guys have been saying... not much i see.

Another thought, if we lived on a torus, we would be able to build transport from one side to the other, kind of like a very big esclelator...

escelator or elevator?

elevator or escelator depending on the angle, you could have a whole network of these...