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Author Topic: 'Shepherd Moon' type planetary orbits possible?  (Read 3955 times)

smjjames

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'Shepherd Moon' type planetary orbits possible?
« on: January 26, 2012, 03:21:39 PM »
I'm not even sure if that is the kind of orbit I'm seeing in my accretion system, however the orbit that I'm seeing with the the planets B'hador and Fstunnuw (yellow and green trails respectively) seems really similar to what my understanding is of shepherd moon orbits, or maybe one of the shepherd moons of Jupiter or Saturn with the odd orbits?

I have no idea if that orbit is even stable, it isn't even 200 years in-sim yet (well, almost as of typing), but I'll put up a save if anybody is interested in checking it out.

Edit: Actually, with the rate of mass increase for the two objects being different, it probably won't be stable over the long term, but... interesting orbital mechanics anyways I guess.

Edit2: Well that didn't last long, they slingshotted each other into higher eliptical orbits....
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 04:16:08 PM by smjjames »