^^ I just came to comment on this but was beaten to it by many months lol. I missed the origional release I guess.
And to put it a bit simpler, the roche limit is the closest something that is orbiting something else more massive (say a moon going round a planet) can be to it and still exist. If it got within that limit, its own gravity wouldnt be strong enough to keep it together any more and the bigger object would tear it to bits and pull it in.
So you never see things orbit within this distance- if a planet or moon etc tried to form that close the material will all just end up becoming part of the bigger thing. And if it drifted into that range already formed somehow, it wont be able to survive for long. That range obviously varies depending on the massess of the objects.
p.s we are only talking about celestial bodies obviously- not man made stuff.
p.p.s The roche limit isnt as clear cut for suns as it is hard bodied planets- its rare but you can get a binary star system where the 2 stars are obiting so close they partialy merge into each other- called a contact binary. I assume they have to be both of similar mass, and I dont know how long term stable they are..
last edited at Aug 27, 2020 1:22AM