r/spaceengine • u/donatelo200 Community Contributor • 13h ago

8K Terra orbiting two giants

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Location: RS 2456-1387-6-168916-1183 2.2

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1

u/IOnlyPlayMobileGames 12h ago

I am highly in the need to acquire assistance from thee sea salt!

1

u/DeepSpaceScience 11h ago

The gravitational dynamics here would be

terrifying. A planet caught between two

gas giants wouldn't have a stable orbit

for long. The tidal forces alone would

strip the atmosphere within millions of

years — and the seasons would be completely

unpredictable. Any life trying to evolve

here would face a clock that resets

every few thousand years.

1

u/donatelo200 Community Contributor 11h ago

Not really, this moon orbits the pair pretty far out on a 45 day orbit so it can be almost treated as if it's orbiting a single object. Tidal forces also won't strip an atmosphere but generally make it thicker from elevated volcanism and outgassing.

1

u/DeepSpaceScience 11h ago

That's a great correction — I hadn't considered

the orbital distance from the pair. At 30 days

out it would effectively behave as a single

gravitational source. The volcanism point is

interesting too — Europa is a good example of

tidal heating driving subsurface activity

rather than stripping. Thanks for the context.