Roche limit facts for kids

Consider an orbiting mass of fluid held together by gravity, here viewed from above the orbital plane. Far from the Roche limit the mass is practically spherical.

Closer to the Roche limit the body is deformed by tidal forces.

Within the Roche limit the mass's own gravity can no longer withstand the tidal forces, and the body disintegrates.

Particles closer to the primary move more quickly than particles farther away, as represented by the red arrows.

The varying orbital speed of the material eventually causes it to form a planetary ring

The Roche limit (pronounced /ˈroʊʃ/), sometimes referred to as the Roche radius, is the distance within which a celestial body, held together only by its own gravity, will disintegrate due to a second celestial body's tidal forces exceeding the first body's gravitational self-attraction. Inside the Roche limit, orbiting material will tend to disperse and form planetary rings, while outside the limit, material will tend to coalesce. The term is named after Édouard Roche, the French astronomer who first calculated this theoretical limit in 1848.

Images for kids

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  Radial distance of one point on the surface of the ellipsoid to the center of mass

See also

In Spanish: Límite de Roche para niños