Is this shattered planet scenario possible?
Suppose there's a planet that has similar characteristics of Earth and can provide life, suddenly shatters in many pieces and scattered over the system. A small but very dense object is attached into the bottom of one planet fragment that has enough mass to provide enough gravity for other side of the planet fragment to have a Earth-like gravity. Throughout all years of orbiting, the fragment builds enough atmosphere (perhaps from terraforming by humans or sucking atmosphere from other planet?) to make it suitable for humans or other living organisms to live. The fragment will have some water carried from old planet where it came from. After the fragment's transformation is complete, it becomes a home for humans. Is it possible?
If you can, explain how different the experience the humans will have when they live on that fragment instead of Earth. The actual borders in the horizon? Different gravity?
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Well, it's really, really, really, really unlikely, but I suppose there's a mechanism for it (albeit unlikely). I think you get the picture.
Take your planet. Now take a very dense neutron star. Propel said neutron star through space at a high speed, and have it hit the planet. If the speed is high enough, the collision will most likely break apart the planet. Neutron stars are very dense and hard to break apart; I would think that this neutron star could attract a piece of the planet, imparting it with a strong gravitational field.
After that, the scenario enters its "unlikely" phase. Neutron stars aren't conducive to life. For one thing, they're composed of neutron degenerate matter, and are very dense, imparting an enormous gravitational field. This is going to be very bad for any life that finds its way onto this planet-star-fragment-thing. Second, the neutron star may be a pulsar, in which case there's going to be a lot of radiation, or a magnetar, in which case strong magnetic fields may make any life forms in the nearby area very miserable.
Because of all the neutron degenerate matter, I think it's really unlikely that any life will have more than a whelk's chance in a supernova of developing here.
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