Football shaped planets

Oddly enough, among the possible shapes, there appears to be one resembling a football.

It is the prominent feature of a newly discovered exoplanet, named KOI 1843.03.

It orbits a star with a mass about half that of the sun, and it is about 400 light-years away from us. KOI’s diameter and mass are respectively 60% and 44% percent those of the Earth.

It orbits so close to its star that tidal forces should tear it apart, but this simply does not happen. The planet remains compact because of its high percentage of iron (66%, twice as much as Earth).

In fact, KOI belongs to a category of planets with high percentages of heavy elements within them, that also includes Mercury.

The combination of high speeds of rotation and revolution (six years on KOI are equivalent to one day on Earth) and tidal forces therefore deforms the exoplanet to an unnaturally oval shape, while the high concentration of iron keeps KOI from being torn apart.