Can anything fall into the Sun?

[imatfaal]

Are you using the theory of the Roche Limit? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit

in most cases the object falling toward the Sun is attempting to orbit the Sun's mass.

 

No - I am merely speculating on the magnitude of the tidal forces. The roche limit is when tidal forces must overcome self gravitation; I was assuming that comets were more solid than that.

 

If you read what I have done it is merely the difference in gravitational attraction for two kilo test masses with a separation about the same as the max estimate of the size of SL9. Frankly I think my concept of a comet's makeup might need to be refreshed .

 

From a quick browse it seems SL9 had a density of .6 gcm-1 so only 60% of water and was so fragmentary even before close approach to Jupiter that internal effective strength was negligible - ie it was held together by self gravity. So in this comet's case entry beyond the roche limit would cause break up

 

from quick back of envelope calculations it would seem that the roche limit for SL9 and Jupiter would be about 1.6 the radius of Jupiter - and it was within about 1.36 when it broke up completely