Potato-shaped
Dec. 4th, 2004 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinThis picture of Prometheus pulling material off the F ring is pretty cool.
I wish that the authors of NASA press releases and educational materials would come up with some phrase other than "potato-shaped" (and occasionally "peanut-shaped") to describe irregular bodies. To me, Prometheus looks more like a bar of soap that has been eroded about halfway to extinction. Hyperion looks like a half-constructed prehistoric spear point. The asteroid Eros sometimes gets the "peanut-shaped" description but they might just be trying very hard to avoid the pornographic implications of its name.
I wish that the authors of NASA press releases and educational materials would come up with some phrase other than "potato-shaped" (and occasionally "peanut-shaped") to describe irregular bodies. To me, Prometheus looks more like a bar of soap that has been eroded about halfway to extinction. Hyperion looks like a half-constructed prehistoric spear point. The asteroid Eros sometimes gets the "peanut-shaped" description but they might just be trying very hard to avoid the pornographic implications of its name.