See Also: Roche(dictionary)
roche(1)(dictionary)
roche(2)(dictionary)
Roche alum(medicine)
de la Roche, Mazo(encyclopedia)
Roche limit(encyclopedia)
Roche (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
tripe de roche(dictionary)
roche moutonnee(dictionary)
Roche Group(finance)

Roche (iou)



Roche noun2. L19.
[Edouard Albert Roche (1820-83), French mathematician.]
Astronomy. Used attrib. & in possess. to designate concepts arising from Roche's work.
Roche limit (a) the closest distance to which a self-gravitating body can approach a more massive body without being pulled apart by the gravitational field of the latter; (b) the smallest continuous equipotential surface (having the form of two lobes meeting at a point) which can exist around both members of a system of two gravitating bodies, e.g. a binary star system. Roche lobe either of the two volumes of space bounded by the Roche limit around a binary system. Roche's limit = Roche limit above. Roche zone the region of space within the Roche limit of a single massive body.