> Possible fragmentation of bodies – in this case one of the masses breaks into 2 equally-sized pieces, which fly off into different directions.
This is the stuff I have a huge question mark about in my head. If two pieces that move very slowly relative to another collide and fragment, why should the pieces fly of in arbitrary different directions and not continue on their trajectory?
So, gravitational pull increases the velocity of bodies relative to another. That's already an exchange of energy, the piece ahead gets slowed down, the piece behind will speed up. Then they collide, exchanging the energy difference again, speeding up the piece ahead and slowing down the one behind. The relative speeds will be tiny initially, because the distances are small, so fragmentation is unlikely. Where does that process run off?
The impact is not necessarily very slow but even so the exact geometries of the impact area with respect to center of masses etc. would change the trajectories in different ways. Since these would be effectively random, the resulting trajectory changes would also be random: some would continue is near the same stable orbital trajectory, some out into space, and some in a decaying orbit that eventually hits earth.
This is the stuff I have a huge question mark about in my head. If two pieces that move very slowly relative to another collide and fragment, why should the pieces fly of in arbitrary different directions and not continue on their trajectory?
So, gravitational pull increases the velocity of bodies relative to another. That's already an exchange of energy, the piece ahead gets slowed down, the piece behind will speed up. Then they collide, exchanging the energy difference again, speeding up the piece ahead and slowing down the one behind. The relative speeds will be tiny initially, because the distances are small, so fragmentation is unlikely. Where does that process run off?