Tidal Disruption Near a Massive Primary

What you are seeing: a cloud of 80 self-gravitating particles ("a fluid satellite") on an eccentric orbit around a heavy primary. As the cloud sweeps inward, the primary's tidal field pulls on the near side harder than the far side. If the satellite's own gravity is weak enough (the "cohesion" slider), tides win and the cloud stretches into a long stream. If cohesion is strong, the cloud stays packed.

The Roche limit for an equal-density fluid satellite is $r_R \approx 2.44\,R_\text{primary}$ . Below this radius a fluid moon cannot hold itself together. Famous example: Saturn's rings sit inside the Roche radius of Saturn, which is why no large moon has ever formed there.

Figure 1. Cloud of 80 mutually attracting test particles on an eccentric orbit around a point-mass primary. Method: velocity-Verlet with softened self-gravity,

dt = 0.005

a3.5

e0.55

cohesion0.050

speed0.5

WHAT TO TRY

Follow the satellite around its orbit: out near apoastron it stays a tight clump, but as it dives inside the dashed Roche limit the tidal field shears it into a long stream, the stream-length readout shooting up.
Lower the cohesion (self-gravity): the body shreds more easily and the stream grows longer; raise it and the clump resists disruption deeper inside the Roche radius.
Raise the eccentricity so periastron dips well inside the Roche limit: that is how comets like Shoemaker-Levy 9 are torn into a string of fragments before impact.