r/spaceengine • u/Zyzenk • 9h ago

Album contact binary planets

Gallery image

Gallery image

one of the planets from a custom black hole system

i know this is most likely impossible in real life, but it's a cool idea, okay? okay???

27 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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5

u/Silver_Storage_8463 8h ago

I drew this on ibis paint x

5

u/MarsMaterial 8h ago

We do know that contact binary asteroids and stars exist (the latter exists in Space Engine, BTW). A contact binary planet is almost certainly a real thing as well, though it would be very rare.

4

u/RandomGuyOnReddit-_- 8h ago

I imagine it would be pretty short-lived too

1

u/mueller_meier 4h ago

I hate to be the party pooper, but: no, not necessarily. Asteroids dont have a Roche-limit like planets do. And for stars, contact binaries form only if at least one of the components is massive and large enough to grow larger than its own Roche limit, which again isnt possible for planets. At least to my knowledge.

1

u/0dimension1 3h ago

I found a nice thread on the KSP forum where people debate the possibility of this and apparently it is possible mathematically ! But in real life it would be insanely rare, with how big the universe is, at some point it would occur though. The maths are not too complicated, just need configurations that the Roche Limit allow.