Potatoes, Peanuts, and Diamonds: How Asteroids Get Their Shapes

Asteroids aren’t just space rocks—they come in some surprisingly familiar forms! From lumpy potatoes to spinning tops and peanut-shaped pairs, these celestial oddballs showcase the wild variety of shapes that exist beyond Earth. In this talk, discover what causes such diversity, how scientists measure these strange forms, and why so many of them happen to look like objects from your kitchen counter. You’ll never look at a peanut the same way again.

Dr. Nick Moskovitz is an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. His research is related to small bodies in the Solar System with active projects related to the origin and evolution of asteroids, comets, and meteors.