00:00A rocky world with a radius under 200 miles will tend to be oddly shaped, while everything with a radius
00:06larger than 200 miles is a sphere.
00:09That is, almost everything.
00:12Haumea, out in the depths of the solar system, is a rule-breaker.
00:16At 1,300 miles long, Haumea is definitely big enough to be round, yet it's stretched out, lopsided, and accompanied
00:25by a thin ring and two icy moons.
00:28So what's the secret? It's all about speed.
00:32Haumea is a cosmic speedster, completing a full day and night cycle in under four hours.
00:38It is the fastest-rotating large object in the Kuiper Belt.
00:43While gravity tries to pull it into a ball, the intense centrifugal force from its spin flings its material outward.
00:50Haumea has no choice.
00:52It's been forced to deform into this elongated, egg-like shape, just to hold itself together.
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