  The shapes of isolated Bok globules and embedded dense cores of molecular
clouds are analyzed using a nonparametric method, under the alternate
hypotheses that they are randomly oriented prolate objects or that they are
randomly oriented oblate objects. In all cases, the prolate hypothesis gives a
better fit to the data. If Bok globules are oblate, they must be very flat; the
average axis ratio is b/a = 0.3, and few or no globules can have b/a > 0.7. If
Bok globules are prolate, then the mean axis ratio is b/a = 0.5. For most data
samples of dense cores, the randomly-oriented oblate hypothesis can be rejected
at the 99% confidence level. If the dense cores are prolate, their mean axis
ratio is approximately 0.4 to 0.5. Dense cores are significantly different in
shape from the clouds in which they are embedded; clouds have flatter apparent
shapes, and are inconsistent with a population of randomly oriented
axisymmetric objects.
