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cjs94
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How close do objects have to be to be considered a single mass? On Earth, with solid objects, the answer would seem to be intuitive: if an object can't fall any further then it is 'connected' to, or part of Earth's mass. But what about something like a gas giant, or a star?
I started thinking about this after learning of the Chandrasekhar limit. If there was a stable white dwarf whose mass was right on the limit and I threw an object at it, how close would it have to get before the star becomes unstable?
Chris
I started thinking about this after learning of the Chandrasekhar limit. If there was a stable white dwarf whose mass was right on the limit and I threw an object at it, how close would it have to get before the star becomes unstable?
Chris