XPost: sci.space.policy   
   From: spam@merlyn.demon.co.uk   
      
   JRS:  In article , seen in   
   news:sci.space.policy, Henry Spencer  posted at   
   Mon, 9 Feb 2004 19:37:44 :-   
      
   >  A close encounter with a planet can split a rubble pile   
   >into a pair of rubble piles, by tidal interaction.  (In fact, one of the   
   >points offered in support of the rubble-pile hypothesis is precisely that   
   >we see a suspiciously large number of double asteroids, which ought to be   
   >fairly rare unless there is some specific mechanism that creates them.)   
      
      
   Why a pair of rubble piles?  Half a rubble pile is still a rubble pile,   
   and should itself be split (ignoring the presumably improbable case of   
   an encounter virtually tangent to the Roche limit).   
      
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