How Close Can Moons Orbit?

In a loosely related note, there is a comic, though good, named Roche limit that has nothing to do with orbiting bodies. )-: It saddens me when sci-fi Co-opts terms just because it sounds science-y.

Fraser, you said you were looking for idea episodes. Here's one. Using Newton's Law of Gravity, it can be easily seen that the Sun has about TWICE the gravitational attraction on the Moon as Earth does. Since gravitational "ownership" determines whether something is a planet or a moon, it would seem that the Moon is actually a planet. And, if that is the case, one would expect the Moon to orbit the Sun rather than the Earth. Are the Earth and the Moon doing a complex "dance" around one another so that both of their orbits are always concave relative to the Sun???

How did you ever manage to get that name right... :)

Er...sterner forces

Hadn't considered a roche limit for us squishy flesh bags here on Earth. Glad that we're made of sterner stuff.