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Questions tagged [hill-sphere]

Questions about the region around an astronomical body where its gravitational field dominates that of satellite bodies.

3 votes
3 answers
130 views

Would a planet's tidal forces really push away a moon out of its Hill Sphere?

If a moon orbits in the same direction as its planet's rotation (i.e. a prograde orbit), and its orbital period is longer than its planet's rotational period, then tidal forces would cause the moon to ...
user267545's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Was Theia a planet or an asteroid?

According to an article Theia (from the Giant impact hypothesis) was an asteroid and according to The Wikipedia article about Theia Theia was an Earth trojan (which is an asteroid). Which is dubious, ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
561 views

Relationship between Roche limit and Hill sphere?

The Roche limit is defined as the minimal orbital distance within which a gravity-bound satellite will remain together rather than being disrupted by tidal forces. If I understand correctly, this is ...
Tom Hunt's user avatar
  • 141
3 votes
1 answer
237 views

Are intersecting orbits ever stable?

Ok, I'm asking this question because the obvious counterexample is trojans. Trojans typically intersect the orbit of its relative body. Typically, these are stable in the long-term, especially when ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,684
1 vote
0 answers
37 views

What's the largest object crossing Ceres' hill sphere?

What's the largest and/or most massive main belt object whose Ceres MOID is within Ceres' hill sphere radius (within ~0.0015 a.u. (140,000 mi) (224,000 km))? Three-dimensionally, of course.
John's user avatar
  • 1,538
1 vote
1 answer
157 views

Is a Procyon - brown dwarf - Jupiter - superearth - Mars - Pluto system theoretically possible? [closed]

I once conducted a thought experiment and with some amateurish calculations based around Hill sphere and Roche limit came up with semi-major axis distances like this: ...
z33k's user avatar
  • 227
3 votes
1 answer
425 views

Are Sun-Earth L1 & L2 points generally considered outside the Earth's Hill Sphere?

This image from Wikipedia of the SE Lagrange points and the Hill Spheres suggests that the SEL points are outside the Earth's Hill Sphere. (The Hill spheres are the circular regions surrounding the ...
Bob516's user avatar
  • 1,489
7 votes
1 answer
412 views

Could a star have a Saturn-like ring?

Saturn's rings will never clump together, because they are within the Roche limit. Which makes me wonder if a star could have rings that are kept from clumping together due to tidal forces. Have any ...
usernumber's user avatar
  • 17.6k
6 votes
1 answer
472 views

When could the Roche limit be larger than the Hill sphere?

This answer to Are Saturn's rings stable? begins with: Most of Saturn's rings are inside it's Roche limit, which means they will never clump together. Tidal forces prevent this from happening. I ...
uhoh's user avatar
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