Édouard Roche in the context of "Roche lobe"

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👉 Édouard Roche in the context of Roche lobe

In astronomy, the Roche lobe is the region around a star in a binary system within which orbiting material is gravitationally bound to that star. It is an approximately teardrop-shaped region bounded by a critical gravitational equipotential, with the apex of the teardrop pointing towards the other star (the apex is at the L1 Lagrangian point of the system).

The Roche lobe is different from the Roche sphere, which approximates the gravitational sphere of influence of one astronomical body in the face of perturbations from a more massive body around which it orbits. It is also different from the Roche limit, which is the distance at which an object held together only by gravity begins to break up due to tidal forces. The Roche lobe, Roche limit, and Roche sphere are named after the French astronomer Édouard Roche.

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Édouard Roche in the context of Roche limit

In celestial mechanics, the Roche limit, also called Roche radius, is the distance from a celestial body within which a second celestial body, held together only by its own force of gravity, will disintegrate because the first body's tidal forces exceed the second body's self-gravitation. Inside the Roche limit, orbiting material disperses and forms rings, whereas outside the limit, material tends to coalesce. The Roche radius depends on the radius of the second body and on the ratio of the bodies' densities.

The term is named after Édouard Roche (French: [ʁɔʃ], English: /rɒʃ/ ROSH), the French astronomer who first calculated this theoretical limit in 1848.

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