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Old 01-17-07, 08:21 PM
Priestess Priestess is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 602
Well, that was close to the question I was going to ask. I'd already read that tidal forces would destroy things if a moon is too close, but here's the question ...

Two scenarios
1) The earth orbiting a gas-giant
2) A rocklike moon orbiting the earth

The question, what's the greatest apparent size (degrees of angle in the sky) the other body can be without tidal forces wrecking everything? The absolute diameter of the other body doesn't matter; neither does the distance between the two, except that it has to be at least 300 miles to keep it outside the atmosphere.
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