Re: Solar system building

Tony wrote:
Hop David wrote:

Tony wrote:

Consider a stable system, with at least one earth-like planet in the water zone. Into this system, a 'rogue' planet wanders, becoming caught in the sun's gravitational well. It is pulled in close enough to exceed Roche's limit (would this be possible with a planet, gas giant or not, and a yellow dwarf star?) and breaks apart. The planet had the right relative velocity so that it ends up entering a cometary orbit around the star, in such a way that the remnants of the rogue planet experience a near-miss with the earth-like planet every 50 years.


This is very similar to what I was describing earlier.


Looks like I got it, then :)

Assume this to have happened about 10,000 years ago.

Over that time, the debris cloud would spread out. At some point, the 'near-miss' would now become a bulls-eye, as the earth-like planet would intersect SOME portion of the debris field almost every cycle.


Over time the debris cloud would be spread over most of the comet's orbit. Earth would experience a meteor shower each time it crossed the comet's path, which would be an annual event. This is in fact what happens with the Leonid meteor shower.

However the debris cloud might be thicker near the nucleus of the comet. If the comet happens to have very close to a 50 year period it is quite possible that the annual meteor shower will turn nasty every 50 years.


The severity of that could be changed by shortening the period since the event - make it 1000 years instead, then. OK That makes sense

Could such a situation be stable for 10,000 years, and remain stable for the forseeable future?


With a 50 year period, that'd be 200 near earth fly bys of the cometary nucleus. Part of the debris cloud passing near planet would be perturbed by the planet's gravity and thrown out of orbit. If the thick part of the debris cloud were pretty large, maybe it could withstand numerous holes punched in it by the planet and it's gravity well.

How about giving it a period of 100 years? That'd be only 100 fly bys of the thickest part of the debris cloud.


Maybe a bit of both, then - shorter time since the event, and longer period between disasters.

And would there remain enough debris to still

cause a pretty heavy global disaster?


If the thick part of the debris cloud is large enough, yes.


OK - I think I may be onto something with this idea, then. Thanks again for the help!


If there is immigration, do they have access to space? Even just by visiting spacecraft?

If so why don't they clear the debris?

(Perhaps a derelict fleet with some defensive systems still working?)
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Relevant Pages

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    ... It is pulled in close enough to exceed Roche's limit (would this be possible with a planet, gas giant or not, and a yellow dwarf star?) and breaks apart. ... The planet had the right relative velocity so that it ends up entering a cometary orbit around the star, in such a way that the remnants of the rogue planet experience a near-miss with the earth-like planet every 50 years. ... Over time the debris cloud would be spread over most of the comet's orbit. ... If the thick part of the debris cloud were pretty large, maybe it could withstand numerous holes punched in it by the planet and it's gravity well. ...
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  • Re: Solar system building
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