The Roche limit applies to stars as well. During the cold war satellites designed to detect the gamma rays from nuclear explosions started to detect flashes of gamma ray light not from the Earth. They were so brief these Gamma Ray Busters were a real puzzle , even pin pointing where they happened was a real problem. Eventually satellites were made to hunt them down and some understanding of what is happening occurred. I mention this because one of the theories is that some of these busters are from neutron stars in tight orbit. The orbits get closer as energy radiates away in gravity waves. They eventually reach a Roche limit and
this is what happens.