Revision for a Collision?

Collisions can range from near misses (which will still disrupt the bodies involved to one extent or another) to head-on dead center hits. The relative size and speed of the bodies are also considerations.

A dead center hit where the masses are within about a factor of five of each orher will produce results that are hard to distinguish from an explosion. Glancing blows will generally produce results that are easy to distinguish.

We see lots of explosion-like events (and their aftermath) in the universe when we look through our high power telescopes. We know that collisions are very unlikely because space is more than 99 44/100% empty. We do not know how likely single body explosions are (with the possible exception of stellar explosions) so we cannot say that they are rare, and we cannot say that they are common.

If your favorite cosmology model allows you to make some specific predictions, why don't you try to match them to the vast observational evidence man has accumulated and let us know what you find.

Regards,
LB

It's not a model, only a query, and on pondering it more and doing drawings I see the outcome of a collision would not correspondd to the structure of the KB. And I think collisions are too unlikely even for planets in highly elliptical orbits. But I don't know of any explanation for the ovelapping rings of the KB nor its much larger mass than the MB nor for the larger mass of the outer belt of the MB.

Hello Larry,

could a glancing collision with a body containing a hot core like the Earth not result in an explosion due to sudden evaporating of core material (and then be difficult to distinguish)?

Best regards Thomas

Thomas,

The probalility of a glancing blow such as you posit leading to a central explosion is pretty low. But I would not feel comfortable assigning it a value of zero. Until we have observed (computer sims are worthless for answering this sort of question) dozens or even hundreds of such collisions the details of them will remain highly speculative. And the devil, as always, is in those pesky details.

A true central explosion for an Earth mass object will vaporize almost all of the matter in that object. Perhaps 1 or 2 percent of the crustal material will survive as solid chunks with orbital parameters that allow them to become asteroids and comets. For smaller masses the percentage will be larger, and it drops to zero for objects much above 4 or 5 Earth masses.

Warning - these dividing lines are based on mathematical models (essentially the same as a simulation) and are therefore subject to serious revision once we start collecting actual observational data.)

A non-central explosion (or an off-center collision) will leave a lot more solid material behind. The farther off-center it is, the more material is left. (Similar warning, but this might be less speculative.)

Regards,
LB

Could it be that after a large gaseous or liquid planet explodes there is more of a chance of its moons colliding than we think? Such an explosion might be so destabilizing that collisions are inevitable for smaller moons because their orbits would be more destabilized than larger moons. The 2 large twin moons, Bellona and Mars would not have collided. 1 was blown up with a plasma weapon (Cosmic War, Joseph Farrell), leaving Mars. There are still the questions of why Bellatrix would have 2 large moons and the other giant planets small moons, and why Mercury is considerably larger and more massive than the Moon, yet both Venus and Earth are of the same size and mass. But certainly the Moon was tampered with because it has too many anomalies.

For two masses orbiting within the gravitational force field of a third larger body, and no other forces involved, collisions can never happen. (Never? I'm reluctant to play the never card, but it seems to work here. Discussion?)

A third body orbiting with the first two can raise the probablility above zero.

A third body entering the stage from outside can raise the probability above zero.

The nearby explosion of a third body can raise the probability above zero.

A passing gas/dust cloud can raise the probability above zero.

IOW, there are situations where collision become possible. But these situations are rare, and rarer still are the situations where collision becomes likely.

LB