Would -GM^2/2a be an acceptable description of total energy or am i misinterpreting center of mass? Could you not say the two masses are m/2 and 2m and turn it into a one body with one oject stationary at the barycenter and the other following the same orbit in the two body?
Well, wouldn't...
This is understandable, but would it not be possible to have orbits so eccentric that apocenter velocity would be negligable in contribution to energy? Do not be concerned with practicality or realism. I imagine this being an approximate model for a collision scenerio with both objects starting...
Homework Statement
Say you have a binary star sytem. Both stars have mass M and semimajor axis a. The orbits are extremely eccentric (e is approximately 1). How would you describe the energy of the system?
Homework Equations
SEE BELOW
The Attempt at a Solution
Basically I'm very...