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new martian moon--hypothetical physics question?
Earth’s moon has a mass of approximately 1/81th that of Earth, and orbits at an average altitude (semi-major axis) of 384,399 km.
Ceres, (the largest body in the asteroid belt) has a mass of approximately 1/699th that of Mars—90,000 times the mass of Phobos. If Ceres could be moved into Martian orbit, at what semi-major axis (altitude) would it have a similar tidal effect on Mars as the Moon has on Earth?
Is there a better candidate for a new Martian moon to produce lunar like effects on Mars?
If Mars had a lunar type satellite, would Mars be more Earth-like? Would the tidal forces be sufficient to generate a Van-Allen belt for the planet and/or stabilize the planet’s orbit as well as its rotation?
3 Answers
- Big DaddyLv 79 years agoFavorite Answer
What do you mean by "similar tidal effect"? There are a few things that you could interpret this to be.
One interpretation is the absolute pull given by the moon when at closest approach. Also absolute force/acceleration difference between a point nearest to the moon and a point furthest away, another would be the relative difference. I'll assume the relative difference for now. With Mars's smaller gravity, this would occur at a higher altitude.
Earth (no moon) local acceleration = GM/r^2
M = 5.974x10^24kg
r = 6371km
g = 9.824 m/s^2
Lunar acceleration on earth toward or away from moon
r = lunar distance +/- 6371km
r = 384400km +/- 6371km
r1 = 378029km
r2 = 390771km
g1 = 3.432 x 10^-5 m/s^2
g2 = 3.212 x 10^-5 m/s^2
g1-g2 = 2.2 x10^-6 m/s^2
Relative difference is (g1-g2) / g(earth)
2.2x10^-6m/s^2 / 9.8m/s^2
2.25 x10^-7
Reversing, mars g is
g(mars) = 3.72m/s^2, so the difference for it's moon should be:
2.72m/s^2 * 2.5x10^-7
8.39 x 10^-7m/s^2
g1 - g2 = 8.39x10^-7ms/^2
m(ceres) = 9.43x10^20kg
Rather than solving directly, I eyeballed and found that somewhere south of 100000km should be about right.
g1 = G m(ceres) / (100000km - 3390km)^2
g1 = 6.74x10^-6 m/s^2
g2 = G m(ceres) / (100000km + 3390km)^2
g2 = 5.89x10^-6 m/s^2
g1-g2 = 8.55x10^-7m/s^2
If you did want the absolute difference to be the same (2.2x10^-6m/s^2), then that would occur at an altitude somewhere around 70000km.
- garlingLv 44 years ago
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