Universe Sandbox

Universe Sandbox => Universe Sandbox ² | Support & Bugs => Topic started by: kgor93 on December 20, 2017, 11:56:11 AM

Title: Why can't large bodies capture and make small bodies orbit them?
Post by: kgor93 on December 20, 2017, 11:56:11 AM

When there is a collision and fragments are ejected outwards, I notice that they are not affected by the gravity of bodies that they pass, even if I make them into full objects (attracting bodies). So if I crash Pluto into Earth and immediately make fragments into full bodies, the ones that shoot towards the sun or towards a large body like Jupiter or Saturn just go in a straight line forever. This also happens when you have a body (like a rogue planet) passing through the orbit of planets or through the solar system.

Unless I'm not understanding this correctly, this is not realistic. Bodies that shoot off in a straight line would quickly change course as they are affected by the gravity of larger bodies.

Basically what I want to do is to setup a rogue moon scenarios where I have multiple moon-sized objects pass through the solar system slowly and get captured by planets, which they will continue to orbit. Is this not possible or just extremely difficult to do?

Title: Re: Why can't large bodies capture and make small bodies orbit them?
Post by: Physics_Hacker on December 20, 2017, 09:41:43 PM

Fragments just tend to have very high velocities, especially depending on your timestep.
What you describe is possible, just difficult.