Roche limit

The Roche limit is a feature of every celestial body.

And someone laughed, "They brought the Roche limit up to it!"

In order to determine the Roche limit, we consider a small mass on the surface of the satellite closest to the primary.

The Roche limit is a distance from a planetary center equal to 2.44 times the planet's radius.

The Roche limit is the distance at which an object held together only by gravity begins to break up due to tidal forces.

The true Roche limit for a satellite depends on its density and rigidity.

However, since it is not breaking up, it must still lie outside its rigid Roche limit.

A weaker satellite, such as a comet, could be broken up when it passes within its Roche limit.

These somewhat unrealistic assumptions greatly simplify the Roche limit calculation.

It will eventually be torn apart, in about 3.6 billion years, when it reaches the Roche limit.

The Roche limit is reached when the gravitational force and the tidal force balance each other out.

A more accurate approach for calculating the Roche limit takes the deformation of the satellite into account.

"I regret to point out that we do not have sufficient reserves to escape the Roche limit," he said flatly.

The planet's practically at the Roche limit.

The table below gives the Roche limits expressed in metres and in primary radii.

Orbiting just beyond the sun's Roche limit, Daedalus destabilized the entire inner system.

Additionally, the comet will come within the Roche limit, meaning it may disintegrate due to the Sun's gravity.

Roche himself derived the following approximate solution for the Roche limit:

This corresponds to the Roche limit.

For this reason, it is also known as the Roche sphere (not to be confused with the Roche limit).

It is also worth considering that the Roche limit is not the only factor that causes comets to break apart.

Roche limit is the distance from an astronomical object where the tidal force matches an orbiting body's gravitational self-attraction.

If its density is similar to Amalthea's then its orbit would actually lie within the fluid Roche limit.

Typically, the Roche limit applies to a satellite disintegrating due to tidal forces induced by its primary, the body about which it orbits.

In these cases, shown in italics, likely values have been assumed, but their actual Roche limit can vary from the value shown.