Q&A
WHY DOES MARS HAVE SUCH A WEIRD SHAPE?
OTTO SYKES, VIA EMAIL
Mars may look like a sphere, but it’s actually a triaxial ellipsoid. Unlike any other rocky planet in the Solar System, it’s shaped rather like a rugby ball, but with different sizes along all three axes. This is most evident as a prominent bulge in elevation in the Tharsis Rise region and in an almost diametrically opposite region called Syrtis Major.