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To: RightWhale
"Differential thermal expansion causes cracks, but ice and other voilatiles provide the motor."

Works for me. However, wouldn't the fractured pieces continue to move away from the main body and themselves. Wouldn't gravity be to small to tug them back in?

14 posted on 07/26/2002 12:35:30 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Wouldn't gravity be to small to tug them back in?

The forces that cause the initial separation would be fairly small so that relative velocities would also be small. Eventually the pieces would be distributed over a goodly part of the original orbit, but this would happen slowly. Right, mutual gravity would cease to be a factor fairly soon. We might be able to watch the cluster continue to spread out if the whole group stays within viewing range.

16 posted on 07/26/2002 12:45:53 PM PDT by RightWhale
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