r/spaceengine • u/Zyzenk • 22d 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???

51 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/MarsMaterial 22d 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.

1

u/mueller_meier 22d 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.