Astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet, TOI-2431 b, on a death spiral. The planet orbits its star in just five hours and 22 minutes, making it an exoplanet with one of the shortest orbit ...

Our circumstances here on the wondrous, life-supporting Earth can give us a false understanding of what the universe is ...

followed by a close encounter with a large asteroid passing through the Earth's Roche limit, which then created a ring of ...

The post New Study Shows That Earth Likely Had Rings Similar To Saturn’s For Tens Of Millions Of Years first on TwistedSifter ...

But if you bring the moon closer to the Earth, the tidal force will overcome the satellite’s gravity and then disintegrate it, turning the moon into a ring. The minimum distance at which this happens ...

This is known as the Roche limit. Fortunately for the Earth's Moon, this limit is just under 10,000km, and the satellite itself is nearly 385,000km away.

Recently I expounded on one of the reasons I love science fiction in response to some continued derision from a friend who fails to give the genre any credit.

Image's 'Roche Limit': Even when writing of space, writer Michael Moreci focuses on inescapable gravity of the human condition.

The Roche Limit is essentially a defined as a circular radius around a gravitational body whereby the exerted tidal forces upon an object will defeat the object’s tensile strength.

The Roche Limit Gravity, though a major contributor to many wonderful things — for example the smooth functioning of the human digestive system — can be a harsh mistress.