Roche limit
.svg) Consider an orbiting mass of fluid held together by gravity, here viewed from above the orbital plane. Far from the Roche limit the mass is practically spherical. |
.svg) Closer to the Roche limit the body is deformed by tidal forces. |
.svg) Within the Roche limit the mass's own gravity can no longer withstand the tidal forces, and the body disintegrates. |
.svg) Particles closer to the primary move more quickly than particles farther away, as represented by the red arrows. |
.svg) The varying orbital speed of the material eventually causes it to form a planetary ring |
The Roche limit (pronounced /ˈroʊʃ/), or Roche radius, is a planetary distance.
Inside the Roche limit, orbiting material will form planetary rings. Outside the limit, material sticks together and forms satellites.[1]
The term is named after Édouard Roche, the French astronomer who first stated it in 1848.[2]
Roche Limit Media
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was disintegrated by the tidal forces of Jupiter into a string of smaller bodies in 1992, before colliding with the planet in 1994.
References
- ↑ Eric W. Weisstein (2007). "Eric Weisstein's World of Physics - Roche Limit". scienceworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
- ↑ NASA. "What is the Roche limit?". NASA - JPL. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
Sources
- Édouard Roche: La figure d'une masse fluide soumise à l'attraction d'un point éloigné, Acad. des sciences de Montpellier, Vol. 1 (1847–50) p. 243
Other websites
- Detailed derivation of formulae for calculating the Roche limit
- Discussion of the Roche Limit Archived 2007-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
