Here’s a fun puzzle about tidal forces.

Suppose a planet in a tidally-locked circular orbit of radius R around its star experiences tidal stretching T (measured in your favourite units for acceleration per distance).

If a wandering planet, with negligible spin, fell into this solar system on a head-on collision course for the star, what tidal stretching would it experience when its distance from the star was also R?

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@gregeganSF the angle of wandering planet to star-moon-planet doesn't matter?

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