7/10/2013 6:30:56 PM

thats no spaceship, thats a moon

7/10/2013 6:48:15 PM

oh man, jaybee.

you make it too easy dude.

7/10/2013 6:49:04 PM

or maybe it is you that makes it too easy for me...

7/10/2013 6:50:29 PM

if Alderon had a moon, do you think it ceased orbit, or if the bulk of the debris was inside it's orbit path and the planet's mass still had a locus at the orbit path of it's own former center of gravity, that the moon just kept on keeping on?

omg now i'm actually curious.

CALL THE Wraith (played by Harvey Keitel)

[Edited on July 10, 2013 at 7:43 PM. Reason : adfsadf]

7/10/2013 7:36:20 PM

7/10/2013 7:42:18 PM

7/10/2013 7:47:31 PM

Quote :

"if Alderon had a moon, do you think it ceased orbit, or if the bulk of the debris was inside it's orbit path and the planet's mass still had a locus at the orbit path of it's own former center of gravity, that the moon just kept on keeping on?"

i guess it depends... did Alderon explode with enough force that the majority of it's mass dispersed into space (most of the mass reaching escape velocity), or did most of the mass NOT reach escape velocity, and eventually clump back together to form Alderon Mark II? In the former case i would imagine the moon too would escape. In the former, i'm sure it's orbit would be affected but it would very likely remain in the system.

7/10/2013 7:48:35 PM

Yeah.. but lets say... the entirety of the planet's mass remained inside the moon's orbit path, but in granular sized bits and magically evenly distributed in a disk like shape, flush with the plane on which the moon's orbital ellipse lies, would such a moon's orbit change even in the slightest?

And for that matter, would the shape of the debris make a difference?

So long as the gravity was calculated at a single point, if the former planet took on an improbable shape of a thin line of matter extending along the axis of it's former rotation (assuming the moon's orbit averaged along the planet's equator) thus perpendicular to and at the center of the plane of the moon's orbit, would the same hold true?

7/10/2013 8:10:02 PM

it became the moon that smashed chewie

7/10/2013 8:13:12 PM

an uneven distribution would have an effect on the orbit... for example you would think that something in orbit around our moon would have no problems at all staying in orbit with there being no atmospheric drag and whatnot, but the gravitational variations within the moon (which is in fact still intact) are enough to disturb the orbit of objects enough so much they can eventually crash into the moon. (apollo 15 and 16 released probes at roughly the same orbit, but the one from 16 had an unstable orbit and eventually crashed)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1972-031D

[Edited on July 10, 2013 at 8:36 PM. Reason : ]

7/10/2013 8:36:45 PM

remember my question is a hypothetical. Let's assume the particle disk and line are static in shape and density and very much evenly distibuted. The question is really are these bodies shapes generating a gravity footprint (in relation to the moon) inconsistent with that of a solid sphere

[Edited on July 10, 2013 at 8:49 PM. Reason : d]

7/10/2013 8:47:17 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_theorem

7/10/2013 8:52:46 PM

yeah that deals with spherical bodies... I guess I need to reframe my question.
I hate not knowing enough about something to even ask the right fucking question

but as punishment for linking me to a wikipedia article, read and attempt to reconstruct the wikipedia page on Lagrange Points L2, L4 and L5.

That shit is magic and you know it

7/10/2013 8:58:33 PM

well, without doing the maths, i would assume that if the material was evenly distributed then yes it would act as a single point.

but if those particles got close enough to the moon, the moon's gravity would probably have a disruptive effect on the particles and screw the whole thing up.

7/10/2013 9:02:32 PM

fair enough

7/11/2013 1:19:40 AM

its Alderaan you fucking nerds

7/11/2013 1:29:49 AM

The one that got blown up in real life in the movie? Yeah.

Smath and I are talking about a fictitious planet with a name intentionally similar to it as an homage.

7/11/2013 1:43:52 AM