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Alexander Fadeev2015-03-25 23:44:13
Physics
Alexander Fadeev, 2015-03-25 23:44:13

Many planets in the same orbit of a star. Is it possible to?

The question is rather unusual in astrophysics.
I'm interested in the following situation. Imagine a star. Several tens/hundreds of completely identical planets rotate around it in one orbit, with the same parameters of rotation, mass and other things. The planets are equidistant from each other and all are at the same distance from the star.
So from the actual question is, can such a thing exist in principle in theory or is it impossible at all in any universe?
Answers are desirable to give reasoned and people at least more or less knowledgeable in the subject.

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7 answer(s)
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numitus2, 2015-03-26
@numitus2

The planets will be attracted to each other and eventually collide. In general, some planets have rings, this is basically the same thing.

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Eddy_Em, 2015-04-01
@Eddy_Em

I advise you to read the definition of the planet. Pay special attention to the "self-cleaning orbit".
If more than one body rotates in one orbit, then this is not a planet!
In normal planetary systems, these things happen in the outskirts of the star system (like we have with the Kuiper belt), in the solar system (so far it remains unique in our Galaxy - none of this has yet been found) there is still an inner asteroid belt due to an inexplicable reversal the order of the planets (for some reason, Jupiter is far from the Sun, and between it and the Sun, another 4 planets miraculously arose).

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Antony, 2015-03-26
@RiseOfDeath

It is the planet that is not a fact, but asteroids or planetoids can be. The asteroid belt in the solar system is an example.

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DanilinS, 2015-04-06
@DanilinS

Impossible in principle.
1) Any planet during formation cleans the orbit from building material.
2) The configuration of the planets indicated by the author is, in principle, unstable and spontaneously decays.

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maaGames, 2015-04-29
@maaGames

If the Star has such a huge mass that a planet with a mass as the sum of the masses of all these planets does not affect it (the influence is negligible) and the planets are so equidistant from each other that they do not exert a gravitational influence on each other, then such a system can exist without any problems. In this configuration, none of these planets will even know about the existence of each other. Moreover, the planets do not even need to be equidistant from the star. All of them will move in a regular elliptical orbit, but with a phase shift.)

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Quarc, 2015-06-13
@Quarc

Naturally, such a configuration cannot arise, but it can be created artificially (with the appropriate capabilities and resources, of course). The planets must be equal in mass and located on the vertices of a regular n-gon inscribed in a circle. Also, there should be no extraneous disturbing factors in the system (no other heavy objects in other orbits around the star, no passing stars, etc.), otherwise everything will fall apart (although with such possibilities, you can correct the orbits for as long as you like).

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Wizard_of_light, 2015-10-04
@Wizard_of_light

If the planets are in orbital Lagrange points of each other, then they can stably rotate in one orbit. One such planetary system has even been found - KOI-730. But the planet has only two Lagrangian points at 60 degrees, so that up to six planets can exist quite stably in one orbit.
Another possible option is if the two planets are satellites of each other, like Pluto and Charon. Then 12 planets can be pushed into orbit - two at each Lagrangian point.
The well-known solutions for three bodies are unstable and crumble from small external influences, but if our task is to last a hundred thousand years, and there figs with him, then we can build an 18-planet configuration.
As for the existence in other universes - an interesting question. It is possible, in principle, to postulate some tricky law of universal gravitation, which forms a repulsion barrier for sufficiently massive bodies.

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