Why are asteroids and comets such weird shapes?

According to Alessandra Springmann, a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Lunar, space and Planetary Laboratory who analyzes asteroids, it all boils down to mass and gravity. Gravity shapes large things such as planets and their moons. Springmann remarked, “If you have enough mass, gravity will take over your shape.”

Asteroids and comets shapes

A duck made of rubber. A rotating top. A couple of pancakes These are only a few of the shapes discovered by astronomers around the solar system. While planets and their moons are almost spherical, asteroids and comets, which are minor parts, occur in various forms and sizes and are small components of the solar system.

  why it takes shapes?

Gravity draws everything equally toward the body’s center of mass once a structure becomes large enough. The gravitational attraction creates a spherical shape. Beyond Neptune, asteroids, comets, and other small bodies in the solar system orbit the sun, such as some Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). These objects are remnants from the solar system’s formation when the planets swept up the majority of the primordial material. According to Springmann, gravity does not affect the shape of these minuscule organisms.

• When gravitational forces are missing, other factors come into play. According to Springmann, asteroids crash, and some become lumpier and less spherical. The KBO Arrokoth, for example, is made up of two pancakes fused. According to legend, two things softly swirled around one other, drawing closer and closer until they collided and became stuck together.
• Bennu and Ryugu, on the other hand, are roughly diamond-shaped rather than circular asteroids. Their shapes are the product of their geological origins. Springmann described Bennu and Ryugu as “rubble mounds.” “They are,” I said. Asteroids are asteroids. Bennu and Ryugu, on the other hand, are diamond-shaped rather than circular. Their shapes are the product of their geological origins.
•  Springmann described Bennu and Ryugu as “rubble mounds.” “They’re merely gravel mounds.” These two asteroids are very porous, and they are kept together by factors other than gravity or friction, such as the weak van der Waals force. The van der Waals force attracts individual particles together by acting on them. Scientists believe these two asteroids are diamond-shaped because their rotational speeds are impacted by how they absorb and emit solar light.