| Autor: |
Rahn, Perry H., Durkin, Thomas V. |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science; 2016, Vol. 95, p41-52, 12p, 4 Color Photographs, 3 Charts, 1 Graph |
| Abstrakt: |
Planets and larger natural satellites in the Solar System are nearly spheroidal in shape, but smaller satellites and all but the largest asteroids tend to be ellipsoids with varying lengths of the three major axes. A comparison of ellipsoidicity and size shows that celestial objects bigger than approximately 1,000 km in diameter are spheroidal. This is not necessarily only because the large objects are (or were) liquid, but is because of surface modification by meteor impacts and gravitationally-induced mass-wasting processes. Meteoritic bombardment changes the shape of a celestial object, and it becomes spheroidal, the highest entropy state for a body subject only to self-gravitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Supplemental Index |
| Externí odkaz: |
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