Monday, June 22, 2009

This is just plain outlandish

Haumea, weirdest object in the extended solar system

And that includes Hyperion:












And Iapetus:













I wonder if someone was reading Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity" when they discovered Haumea:
"Haumea is the fastest spinning object in the solar system. The object's odd shape is a direct result of the spin. "Because of this spin, it pulls itself outward" at the equator in a bulge, Brown explained. The Earth has a less pronounced version of this bulge for the same reason. The hyperactive spin of Haumea means that if you were standing on its surface, "your gravity would be very different," Brown said. Specifically, it would hold you down with much less of a grip than the Earth."


Hubble is going to take a look at Haumea in a few weeks/months. That'll be interesting.

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