Here’s a fun puzzle about tidal forces.
Suppose a planet in a tidally-locked circular orbit of radius R around its star experiences tidal stretching T (measured in your favourite units for acceleration per distance).
If a wandering planet fell into this solar system on a head-on collision course for the star, what tidal stretching would it experience when its distance from the star was also R?
Greg Egan
npub12c…gd38p
2025-05-05 11:27:07 UTC
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2025-05-05 11:27:07 UTCEvent JSON
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