[TML] White Dwarfs, Black Holes & 100 Diameters

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 10/22/07 8:12 AM, Leonard Erickson wrote:

> The Schwarzchild radius is just the distance from their (apparent)
> center where the escape velocity is the speed of light.
> 
> Tidal forces will rip atoms apart before you get to the "100
> diameter" limit.

Depends on the size of the whole.  Really, really large ones, you could
cross the Schwarzschild radius without noticing!  Granted, you probably
don't have any that large outside the core of the galaxy...

> The *real* rule is how strong the tidal forces are (which is
> equivalent to saying "how sharply space is curved").
> 
> If that is the case, then the limit depends solely on mass, and for
> black holes, neutron stars and white dwafs will be about the same as
> any star of similar mass. An AU or so.

I don't remember if you caught my post on this a few months ago, but using
tidal force also means the safe distance should also depend on the size of
ship.  Tidal force is difference in gravity between parts of the object
acted on.  :)  Could be a reason to limit practical ship size.

Unless you literally mean space curvature, in which case I'm not sure
planet/objects's mass is probably a good approximation.

> On the other hand, don't things like tidal limits get weird *inside*
> an object?
> 
> Hmmm. Silly thought. Could a giant molecular cloud or some such
> manage to have enough tidal force to pop a ship out of jump, but
> still be thin enough to "fly" thru at the center?

Gravity drops as you move inside the object, thus so would tidal force.

I doubt the clod would work, for that reason.  If it were the mass of the
Sun, it would have the same tidal effect from it's center, but only outside
it's radius.  The tidal effect would drop off internally, so right at the
edge would be the max effect, and that's more than 100 Solar diameters...