Shape
Proteus is the largest irregularly shaped natural satellite. All other known natural satellites the size of Miranda and above have lapsed into a rounded ellipsoid under hydrostatic equilibrium. The planets are not truly spherical but oblate spheroids, squatter at the pole than at the equator, but with a constant equatorial diameter. The larger natural satellites, however, since they are all tidally locked, are scalene, squat at the poles but with the equatorial axis directed at their planet longer than the axis along their direction of motion. The most distorted natural satellite is Mimas, where the major axis is 9% greater than its polar axis and 5% greater than its other equatorial axis, giving it a notable egg shape. The effect is smaller with the largest natural satellites, where self gravity is greater relative to tidal distortion, especially when they orbit a less massive planet or at a greater distance, as the Moon does.
| Name | Satellite of | Difference in axes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (km) | (% of mean diameter) | ||
| Mimas | Saturn | 33.4 (20.4, 13.0) | 8.4% (5.1%, 3.3%) |
| Enceladus | Saturn | 16.6 | 3.3% |
| Miranda | Uranus | 14.2 | 3.0% |
| Tethys | Saturn | 25.8 | 2.4% |
| Io | Jupiter | 29.4 | 0.8% |
| The Moon | Earth | 4.3 | 0.1% |
Read more about this topic: Natural Satellite
Famous quotes containing the word shape:
“Bid her paint till day of doom,
To this favour she must come.
Bid the merchant gather wealth,
The usurer exact by stealth,
The proud man beat it from his thought,
Yet to this shape all must be brought.”
—Francis Beaumont (1584-1616)
“We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“The beauty of the internal nature cannot be so far concealed by its accidental vesture, but that the spirit of its form shall communicate itself to the very disguise and indicate the shape it hides from the manner in which it is worn. A majestic form and graceful motions will express themselves through the most barbarous and tasteless costume.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)