ASTR 151 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: The Moons, Turbulence, Tidal Locking
Document Summary
Vocabularies: oblate , dissipate , torus , flatter , bulging , plasma torus , argon . Ma: the gravitational force on a moon is greater the closer it is to the planet. Saturn"s large tidal forces: the roche limit is defined as the distance from a planet at which the tidal force (due to the planet) between adjacent objects exceeds their mutual attraction. Objects within this limit are unlikely to accumulate into larger objects. The roche limit is often called the tidal stability limit: saturn"s rings: New material added: meteoritic impacts chip off debris from the moons just outside the roche limit; medium-sized moons are torn apart as they pass into saturn"s roche limit. Old material destroyed: ring material falls into saturn"s upper atmosphere. Saturn"s rings were created or are replenished by: a large comet collides with a moon near the roche limit, breaking apart the moon;
