Corotating tidal-disruption estimate for a uniform sphere

ID: corotating-tidal-disruption-estimate-for-a-uniform-sphere

A small cohesionless spherical body of radius and density has surface self-gravitational acceleration . The radial stretching of the corotating point-mass tidal field is . Equating them gives the displayed survival-distance estimate. The size cancels because both accelerations are linear in at fixed density. This is a local spherical force-balance estimate, not the exact fluid Roche figure: shape deformation, material strength and nonsynchronous spin can change its numerical coefficient.

New to topics? Read the docs here!