Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The planet Jupiter is a slight oblate spheroid with a flattening of 0.06487. The oblate spheroid is the approximate shape of rotating planets and other celestial bodies, including Earth, Saturn, Jupiter, and the quickly spinning star Altair. Saturn is the most oblate planet in the Solar System, with a flattening of 0.09796. [5]
Prolate spheroidal coordinates μ and ν for a = 1.The lines of equal values of μ and ν are shown on the xz-plane, i.e. for φ = 0.The surfaces of constant μ and ν are obtained by rotation about the z-axis, so that the diagram is valid for any plane containing the z-axis: i.e. for any φ.
Figure 1: Coordinate isosurfaces for a point P (shown as a black sphere) in oblate spheroidal coordinates (μ, ν, φ). The z-axis is vertical, and the foci are at ±2. The red oblate spheroid (flattened sphere) corresponds to μ = 1, whereas the blue half-hyperboloid corresponds to ν = 45°.
For comparison, Earth's Moon is even less elliptical, with a flattening of less than 1/825, while Jupiter is visibly oblate at about 1/15 and one of Saturn's triaxial moons, Telesto, is highly flattened, with f between 1/3 and 1/2 (meaning that the polar diameter is between 50% and 67% of the equatorial.
For a Maclaurin spheroid of eccentricity greater than 0.812670, [3] a Jacobi ellipsoid of the same angular momentum has lower total energy. If such a spheroid is composed of a viscous fluid (or in the presence of gravitational radiation reaction), and if it suffers a perturbation which breaks its rotational symmetry, then it will gradually elongate into the Jacobi ellipsoidal form, while ...
The unusual cosmic abundance of alpha nuclides has inspired geometric arrangements of alpha particles as a solution to nuclear shapes, although the atomic nucleus generally assumes a prolate spheroid shape. Nuclides can also be discus-shaped (oblate deformation), triaxial (a combination of oblate and prolate deformation) or pear-shaped. [7] [8]
The motion is simplified in the case of an axisymmetric body, in which the moment of inertia is the same about two of the principal axes. These cases include rotation of a prolate spheroid (the shape of an American football), or rotation of an oblate spheroid (the shape of a flattened sphere). In this case, the angular velocity describes a cone ...
The shape of an egg is approximated by the "long" half of a prolate spheroid, joined to a "short" half of a roughly spherical ellipsoid, or even a slightly oblate spheroid. These are joined at the equator and share a principal axis of rotational symmetry , as illustrated above.