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Say What? Planetary Science

Earth might once have resembled a hot, steamy doughnut

The newly proposed planetary shape is called a synestia

synestia illustration

PUFFED UP  Early in its development, a rocky planet may turn into a synestia (illustrated), a spinning disk of vaporized rock that looks like a jelly-filled doughnut with a small, solid core (gray).

S. Lock/Harvard Univ.

By Ashley Yeager

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