Roche limit

(rōsh)

The smallest distance at which a natural satellite can orbit a celestial body without being torn apart by the larger body's gravitational force. The distance depends on the densities of the two bodies and the orbit of the satellite.

[After Edouard Albert Roche (1820-1883), French mathematician.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Roche limit

(rɒʃ)

(Astronomy) astronomy the distance from the centre of a body, such as a planet, at which the tidal forces are stronger than the mutual gravitational attraction between two adjacent orbiting objects

[C19: named after E. A. Roche (1820–83), French mathematician]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Translations

limite di Roche

References in periodicals archive ?

He is best known for the science fiction trilogy Roche Limit (2015-2016).

Black Star Renegades

The ring's orbit has a radius of about 2,287 km (1,421 miles)--that's too close to Haumea, well inside a gravitational threshold called the Roche limit, to be able to collect into a single body.

Dwarf Planet Haumea Has a Ring

This is due to the fact that the rings spread over time and, when they reach a certain distance from the planet (known as the Roche limit or Roche radius), their ends agglomerate and form small bodies that break off and move away.

How Satellites Were Formed from Planet Rings

Very close to a star, at a boundary called the Roche limit, planets are dismembered by the star's gravity.

Exoplanets which venture near their host stars are doomed to premature deaths

At this distance the object has reached its expected Roche limit, where tides induced by the star should literally pull it apart.

Amateurs track a disintegrating exoplanet: As we watch, a world that came too close to its dead star is falling to pieces

And although we would be a little beyond Jupiter's Roche limit for pulling Earth apart completely, our tides would be out of this world!

A really giant Jupiter?

Moreover, the comet will be inside the Sun's Roche limit, where the Sun's tidal effect will overpower the nucleus's weak self-gravity.

As Comet ISON nears ... will it become a great comet? A pathetic dud? Or something in between?

Dynamicists now realize that the rings lie within what's termed the Roche limit, inside of which tidal stresses from Saturn would tear apart any large solid object.

Where did the rings come from?

That allowed the group to estimate how densely the companion must be packed in order to keep it from overflowing its Roche limit and being tidally torn apart by the pulsar's gravity.

About that diamond planet ..

As it continued to migrate inward, the doomed moon crossed the threshold (known as the Roche limit) inside of which Saturn's tidal forces began pulling it apart.

Making sense of Saturn's rings

The Roche limit is where the tidal force pulling a body apart becomes greater than the gravitational force holding it together.