Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A prolate spheroid is a spheroid in which the polar axis is greater than the equatorial diameter. Prolate spheroids stand in contrast to oblate spheroids. The prolate spheroid is the shape of the ball in several sports, such as in Rugby league, Rugby union and Australian rules football. In American football and Canadian football, a more pointed prolate spheroid is used (one resembling a vesica piscis in cross section). Several moons of the Solar system approximate prolate spheroids in shape, though they are actually scalene. Examples are Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys (satellites of Saturn) and Miranda (a satellite of Uranus). In contrast to being distorted into oblate spheroids via rapid rotation, celestial objects distort slightly into prolate spheroids via tidal forces when they orbit a massive body in a close orbit. The most extreme example is Jupiter's moon Io, which becomes slightly more or less prolate in its orbit due to a slight eccentricity, causing spectacular volcanism.

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