What Is the Roche Limit?

The Roche limit refers to the distance from a massive object inside of which tidal forces exceed gravitational attraction between any two objects. No object that it's held together solely by gravity can survive inside the Roche limit. This is why gas giants, notably satin, have rings. If you went to a sufficiently dense object like a neutron star for example, maybe I'll talk about those in another podcast,. The tidal forces would become so great that they would exceed even the electromagnetic forces keeping your spaceship together and your spaceship and in fact your body would be ripped apart.