How close can two planets actually orbit each other? Pic included
- Thread starter Salkinius
- Start date
That's two huge balls you have there 
Without a distance to the other moon or even by seeing your radar scanner, it's hard to tell if they are really close or if it's just a perspective illusion.
It could be possible that one of the moons is much further away than the other one but is much larger leading to a perspective illusion like this, especially when their orbits get close to eclipsing.
Or were they both showing similar distance?
It could be possible that one of the moons is much further away than the other one but is much larger leading to a perspective illusion like this, especially when their orbits get close to eclipsing.
Or were they both showing similar distance?
You might want to study orbital mechanics a little bit, it's not quite as obvious as it'd seem at first. Those two are orbiting around each other fast enough that the centrifugal force balances out the gravitational attraction, keeping them roughly the same distance from each other. If you sat there long enough you'd see them spin around each other.
I thought the detail of the planet surface was telling enough. You have the range from where I am to one of the planets as a reference. I will add two more pics where you can see how far I'm out from each of the two planets.
Sitting here watching them for roughly 30 minutes. A can see how they together with the mother planet revolves around the star, But they are still, not even rotating axis'.
True, but I've no idea about the LOD mechanic in the game. They could be sending detailed LOD from quite far out. I just wanted to check.
But looking at your 2 pics there, they are remarkably close. So, these 2 moons are orbiting each other and in turn they are both orbiting a planet. That must lead to some unusual gravitational phenomena on the mother planet. Wow, my mind is awesomely boggled.
Orbital mechanics, FTW
Tidal forces would eventually rip them apart. These should be pretty rare.
Chances are they'd be tidally locked, so presumably no ripping apart.
To have two similarly sized planets this close in stable orbit is highly unlikely. Planets should have either collided, merged or "catapulted" each other away long ago. At least tidal forces would disrupt and heat both planets so much that there is no way for them to appear frozen.
They wouldn't survive long enough to become tidally locked.
They wouldn't survive long enough to become tidally locked.
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WHICH ONE IS IN FRONT?
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe ..."
Ehh? weird.