Why is so much stuff in orbit?

[drewbert]

*Originally posted by Phobos *
hey, I’m not that odd! :mad:

I hope you’re not saying you actually are spud-shaped…

:ducks:

[John_Kentzel-Griffin]

*Originally posted by ***KJ **
[A] bunch of multicolored spheres were spawned from a single point going in random directions (a big bang simulation).

I just want to clear up something about this that bothers me. The big bang was not a localized explosion that flung stuff out into an existing universe. It happened “everywhere”. In your simulation there would be an edge of expansion and a point that would be the center of the explosion. This is not what the big bang was. You are simulating an ordinary explosion.

[Irishman]

k2dave said:

not all orbits are stable, the moon is getting further away and will eventually get flung off. phobos? one of mars’ moons will eventually crash into mars. Is there such a thing as a truly stable orbit, if so how tight a tolerance does this have?

Stable is a relative thing. It is stable over the course of billions of years. It may not be stable over the course of the span of the universe.

and a hijack here - is the 2 so called moons orbiting mars really moons or are they just meterors. I am guessing that sinced mars is comparatively close to us, the ‘moons’ were found and called moons before we really knew what a moon is.

You seem to imply there’s a clear definition for what a moon is, and that those rocks don’t fit. What definition are you using? Astronomers tend to use a definition of some body smaller than the main one sharing the same solar orbital plane but also trapped in orbit about that larger body. I don’t know if there’s a minimum size limit - perhaps right now it is “visible”, i.e. can we find it. The fact that The Moon is a significant size of Earth compared to those other moons, and the fact that some moons are bigger than some planets is irrelevant.

So what if a couple of Mars’ moons were asteroids that got trapped? A couple of Neptune’s moons may be trapped comets. (Or would they just be proto-comets?)

So guys, what’s the difference between an asteroid and a meteroid? Hmm?

DrMatrix, I suspect it was a big bang analog for his particular simulation, not necessarily an accurate or particularly good big bang simulation. But good to point that out for the unwashed masses. I’ve got another guy on another board protesting that the big bang models are all wrong and it’s really like a fireworks display.

[Phobos]

*Originally posted by Irishman *
So guys, what’s the difference between an asteroid and a meteroid? Hmm?

Here, size matters. Also, most of the meteors we see (as shooting stars) are remnants of comet tails. Asteroids tend to be chunks of left over building blocks of the planets from the early solar system.

Of course, you’re absolutely right that astronomy is full of transitional type objects that don’t fit neatly into categories.

[/QUOTE]
I’ve got another guy on another board protesting that the big bang models are all wrong and it’s really like a fireworks display.
[/QUOTE]

Egad. 20 lashes for that guy.
perhaps this will help in your fight against ignorance…
http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/cosm/bang.html