Equatorial Bulge - Other Celestial Bodies

Other Celestial Bodies

Generally any celestial body that is rotating (and that is sufficiently massive to draw itself into spherical or near spherical shape) will have an equatorial bulge matching its rotation rate. Saturn is the planet with the largest equatorial bulge in the Solar System (11808 km, 7337 miles).

The following is a table of the equatorial bulge of some major celestial bodies of the Solar System:

Body Equatorial diameter Polar diameter Equatorial bulge Flattening ratio
Earth 12,756.28 km 12,713.56 km 42.72 km 1:298.2575
Mars 6,805 km 6,754.8 km 50.2 km 1:135.56
Ceres 975 km 909 km 66 km 1:14.77
Jupiter 143,884 km 133,709 km 10,175 km 1:14.14
Saturn 120,536 km 108,728 km 11,808 km 1:10.21
Uranus 51,118 km 49,946 km 1,172 km 1:43.62
Neptune 49,528 km 48,682 km 846 km 1:58.54

Read more about this topic:  Equatorial Bulge

Famous quotes containing the words celestial bodies, celestial and/or bodies:

    It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies.... Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    At this very moment,... the most frightful horrors are taking place in every corner of the world. People are being crushed, slashed, disembowelled, mangled; their dead bodies rot and their eyes decay with the rest. Screams of pain and fear go pulsing through the air at the rate of eleven hundred feet per second. After travelling for three seconds they are perfectly inaudible. These are distressing facts; but do we enjoy life any the less because of them? Most certainly we do not.
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)