The Football Planet!

Yes, there is a "planet" out in the Kuiper Belt that looks just like an
NFL football!

Discovered by the same people who brought you Xena, its measure along
its largest dimension is as large as Pluto. It has been called the
strangest known object in the Kuiper Belt!

And it has two moons!

Actually, the reason it looks like a football to us is because its
rotation is so rapid (completes a day in 4 hours!) that its equatorial
bulge has grown to where it looks very oblate.

Composed mostly of rock, they think it may have lost its icy crust in
an early collision with another Kuiper Belt object, and that also gave
it its rapid spin. This collision may also have created its moons.
(Oops, there's that collision/moon theory again.)

It is officially designated 2003 EL61. A real name has yet to be
announced.

This will give the lonely sidewalk astronomer something new to look
for.

For a good description, explantion, and pictures see:

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/2003EL61/index.html

Double-A