Hi, All,
Sorry, I accidentally posted before I'd finished the message!
This is getting a little heavy...
Just quickly working out the attraction due to Gravity, F= Gravitational Constant times (Mass 1 times Mass 2) over the distance between them squared, the force of attraction between Kulthea and Orhan is 42.015 times greater than the attraction between the Earth and the Moon.
(As anyone who's fallen out of a tree will tell you, Gravity is a real pain!)
Yeah, Don- you're quite correct- using the stated mass/distances, Orhan alone would cause absolutely catastrophic tidal effects on both the seas and the Tectonic Plates- there's also a high chance that combined with the solar wind, that it would also be stripping the Kulthean atmosphere at a quite a rate. (The Earth has very little atmospheric hydrogen for a similar reason.)
(Sorry pressed the wrong button, there!)
Anyway, the reduction in the atmospheric mass, would also reduce the boiling point of water- which with the increased volcanism, would start causing more and more water to turn to water vapour- some of which, would again, be lost to space. Then, we get into the effects of the reduced weight of water on the planets surface, which current theory seems to indicate would further increase volcanism- as seen by the increase in incidence of tectonic activity in the last few years- attributed in the Earth's case to the melting of Glaciers and the redistribution of the weight. (Although, the jury is still undecided on that one- the theory tends to support it, but there's not enough hard evidence.) If that theory is right, then we get even more water being boiled off- a lot being lost to space. This could quite quickly, in geological terms, end up with Kulthea with only some of the heavier (and generally highly toxic) gases left, very little surface water, and almost zero chance of life evolving....
(Note, the above completely ignores the other Moons and the additional tidal effect of centrifugal force, caused by Kulthea's rotation. Kulthea's diameter is larger than the earths, so it must rotate slightly faster, as well....)
Conversely, Orhan's atmosphere wouldn't have stood a chance.
Fortunately, we know that
this hasn't happened- because Terry's written about it.
So, that leaves two choices, either get Terry- bless him- to re-write everything, or we ignore the extreme effects that Physics dictates.
My vote continues to go with ignoring the worst of the effects of Physics.
Part of the problem, I think is that it is very difficult for people to visualise the distances involved in Celestial Mechanics, and the fact that whilst the Gravitational Constant is very small- 6.6742 by 10 to the power of -11 metres cubed per Kilogram per second- it still works over an infinite distance.
This makes it difficult to visualise the effects of even slight deviations in distance or mass, between massive objects.
How do you visualise the fact that there's a Gravitiational attraction between you and the monitor in front of you, as you read this?
Microscopic, admittedly, but it's there.
Hell, there were people I did 'A' Level Physics with, who were still struggling with the theory after we'd finished the exams.....
Which either means that they weren't that good at Physics, or the Lecturer wasn't that good at explaining things.
Whew- hopefully that makes sense!
All the Best,
Kevin