Quote:
Originally Posted by skytry
I see the result of the equasion
that you both have solved,
what is D standing for in the equasion?,
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Hi Peter,
If you refer to the Wikipedia page Malc referenced (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit) you can see the following explanation:
Quote:
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The Roche limit for a rigid spherical satellite excluding orbital effects, is the distance, , from the primary at which the gravitational force on a test mass on the surface of the object is exactly equal to the tidal force pulling the object away from the object:
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and further down the page:
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This is the orbital distance inside of which loose material (e.g., regolith or loose rocks) on the surface of the satellite closest to the primary would be pulled away
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If I understand this correctly, if the surface of the moon were inside the Roche Limit (i.e. if the diameter of its orbit was less than the value of d calculated for the earth and the moon), then anything on the surface of the moon would be pulled towards earth.
HTH,
Michael