Orbit Definition and 1000 Threads

I was given a question which I have worked out, but not to my satisfaction... "if the inclination of Earth and Venus orbit was the same, how often would the transit occur?" I am given 4 options and I have got the right answer, but I did it by trial and error, and I am sure that there must be a...

Hi As far as I know the Earth orbits around the Sun Earth barycenter while the Sun orbits the Solar System BaryCenter formed by the changing center of mass of the Solar system. So even while the Sun orbits the SSBC and Earth orbits the Sun-Earth BC it would not be true to say the Earth...

Note the explanation text below the videocheers Dave

I know this sounds like an elementary question with an easy answer. However, I was thinking about chaos theory. Planets and stars are always changing so that their gravitational pulls towards other objects varies. Shouldn't the tiniest change between the pull of a star and a planet, or a planet...

Homework Statement a comet is orbiting around the Sun in a parabolic orbit . center of the sun to perigee of the comet's orbit distance is 58 km . find the time required for the comet to transit into the Earth orbit around the sun . Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution no clue

Homework Statement given: the speed at perihelion What is comets full energy? What is its distance from Sun at perihelion? How much time is the comet located inside Earth's orbit? Homework Equations parabolic orbit equation 3. The attempt at a solutin wrongly calculated l

I was doing some research on the findings of the Kepler space telescope this morning. I noticed that some of the stars it has found are quite small, and some of the planets in other systems are quite large. Is it theoretically possible for there to be a situation somewhere in the universe where...

Homework Statement A body on an orbit with semi-major axis a and eccentricity e undergoes tidal circularisation. Show that the orbit will circularise at a semi-major axis, acirc, given by acirc = 2rperi = 2a (1 − e). Homework Equations No equations given, but I think the following could...

Can someone please give a step by step explanation of an orbital rendezvous by a spacecraft for a target that is orbiting the body it launched from? And if possible, can you explain how mission control is involved and what part computers play? When the RCS is active is it changing the...

Homework Statement The metric near Earth is ##ds^2 = -c^2 \left(1-\frac{2GM}{rc^2} \right)dt^2 + \left(1+\frac{2GM}{rc^2} \right)\left( dx^2+dy^2+dz^2\right)##. (a) Find all non-zero christoffel symbols for this metric. (b) Find satellite's period. (c) Why does ##R^i_{0j0} \simeq \partial_j...

Hi all, I feel like I have the answer, or am at least in the ballpark, but I'm not confident in this area and so I also feel like there should be a more concise, or "beautiful" way to express it. Am I missing something? 1. Homework Statement Explain why the orbit of a geostationary satellite...

So for an online quiz, I am stuck on this question: The oldest artificial satellite still in orbit is Vanguard I, launched March 3, 1958. Its mass is 1.60 kg. Neglecting atmospheric drag, the satellite would still be in its initial orbit, with a minimum distance from the center of the Earth of...

I know that when a spacecraft is in orbit, the direction in which the spacecraft produces thrust affects its orbit. If the thrust is tangent to the orbit, the orbit's shape (eccentricity and size) changes. If the thrust is perpendicular to the orbit, but tangent to the surface of the...

Homework Statement Hi there, I wish to use Newton's Laws in conjunction with Euler's Method to model the motion of a planet around a star.Homework Equations 2nd Law F = m*a Law of Universal Gravitation F = -G*M1*M2/r^2 The Attempt at a Solution [/B] First I combined the two laws above...

I know white holes probably don't exist, but I'm having trouble understanding how someone outside the white hole would perceive them. My understanding is that they are time-reversed black holes. I've read that nothing can fall into a white hole, that it is repulsive, and that it continually...

Homework Statement This is a problem I picked for my calculus one class that I would like to solve, then model the solution using the sandbox video game universe sandbox. I would like to calculate the closest stable orbit of the moon, if possible allowing for some eccentricity in the orbit...

Consider the following; We have Earth with two moons in orbit (discounting the existence of our own moon for the sake of this hypothetical scenario). One moon is the size and mass of Pluto, orbiting around 70,000km from Earth. The other is the size and mass of Pluto's moon, Charon, orbiting...

Hi. I'm just a hobbier of astronomy and have a question about elliptical orbit. In Before, I had calculated the elipse of a planet successfully. In this case, I wonder that can calculate velocity(red vector) using orbit time(or position on elipse). Let me assume that we know orbit's semi-major...

Homework Statement Two equal-mass stars maintain a constant distance apart of ## 8.0 *(10^11) ## m it is eight times ten to the eleventh, not eight times ten to the first power times one. I don't know why Latex forbids exponents of two digits or more and rotate about a point midway between...

Homework Statement Attached. Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Hi. This question has me really puzzled; I simply don't know where to start with this one and thus am not sure of any relevant equations. It seems to be a problem about small perturbations to the circular...

Homework Statement Currently, I am trying to prove the "conservation of energy" concept within a comet's elliptical orbit by finding the mechanical energy of the aphelion and perihelion point to see if they're equal. However, they don't equal each other when I calculate both points. (aphelion...

Hi. I'm just a hobbier of astronomy and have a question about elliptical orbit. I wonder that can calculate elliptical orbit using just atitude(location) and velocity(vector). Please look at my picture. The blue dot is central body and green dot is my interesting body. Let me assume mass of...

I am self studying Kleppner and Kolenkow's an Introduction to mechanics. But i have one doubt about how they got into the equation no 3 of the example problem 9.3 in Central Force Motion. Please clarify my doubt.

Hey, sorry if this is not the right section to post in, the topic is a bit ambiguous. I've generated a set of coordinate points for the orbit of Mercury (3d cartesian) and now I want to fit an ellipse through it so I can get an accurate estimate of the location of the perihelion. I am using...

Hello there! What I have never understood is that our seasons are the result of the tilt of the Earth's axis, and I've always interpreted that to mean that the northern hemisphere is closer to the sun in June, July, and August, and the southern in December, January, and February. If that is the...

Homework Statement Calculate the centripetal acceleration of an electron in the lowest Bohr orbit. Homework Equations no equations were given but i think i have to use ac = v2/r were v = 2.19 x 106 m/s (speed of electron in its lowest orbit) r = ao = 5.29 x 10-11m (minimum radius) The Attempt...

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong thread. I'm currently writing a presentation on the physics of getting a spacecraft from Earth to Mars in the near future. In my research I've come up against Porkchop plots which seem to plot contours of equal characteristic energy so you can find...

Greetings! I would like to know how to calculate the time, or fraction of orbital period, that a satellite spends in umbra? (total solar eclipse for satellite when they aren't affected by Solar radiation pressure and solar panels don't generate power). Information given would be satellite's...

Homework Statement (a) Find the proper time in the rest frame of particle (b) Find the proper time in the laboratory frame (c) Find the proper time in a photon that travels from A to B in time P Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution Part(a) [/B] The metric is given by: ds^2 =...

Is there a way of telling whether the orbit of a body around another, or rather of both around their centre of mass, will give the object in question a circular, elliptical, hyperbolic or parabolic orbit? Thank you!

consider a body revolving around a star and having a velocity v when closest to the star ( distance r) then the velocity of the body at a point farthest ( distance R) is? 1)by angular momentum conservation :: r × mv = R× mV »V = (r/R).v...

I was looking at some interesting resonant orbits in our solar system and was wondering if someone who knows a lot more about planetary orbits than I might be able to answer if a certain scenario would actually lead to stable orbits or not. The scenario I have in mind is four planets tightly...

Published on Jan 19, 2015 The Dawn spacecraft observed Ceres for an hour on Jan. 13, 2015, from a distance of 238,000 miles (383,000 kilometres). A little more than half of its surface was observed at a resolution of 27 pixels. This video shows bright and dark features. This video was created...

Homework Statement In a classical model of a multi-electron atom, electrons are assumed to move in a modified electrostatic potential $V(r)$, given by; $$V(r)=\dfrac{-k}{r}e^{-r/a}$$ Show that the effective potential is ; $$V_e(r)=\dfrac{J^2}{2mr^2}+\dfrac{-k}{r}e^{-r/a}$$ Then show that...

I read this interesting paper showing that in less than a million years, one star will fly past our Sun at a distance of about 0.13 light years [1]. How might I calculate the maximum disruption this could cause on the orbit of an object in orbit around our Sun, such as planets and comets...

For an electron the spin operator S_zis represented by a 2×2 matrix, with spin up and down as its bases. Consider the angular momentum operator L_z with l=1 which is a 3×3 matrix. How can we treat the L_z S_z operator directly in matrix form?

I have heard that instead of orbiting the nucleus they actually pop into and out of existence around the nucleus forming the electron cloud, and where they relocate depends on the probability of that area due to wave function, am i right?

Hey, what force classically held electron in the orbit? Also what force is it actually (quantum mechanics). I think it was the electromagnetic force classically, I haven't been able to find a legit source that says it was directly that, but when I do calculations with electrons and atoms I'm...

Hi all. The answer to this might be trivial. If it is, sorry for posting. If you calculate the acceleration due to gravity of an orbiting satellite, it could be around 8.5-9.5m.s-2, depending. So, it's tangential velocity is such that as it falls towards earth, Earth curves away and the...

Homework Statement A spy satellite of mass m is in a circular orbit with radius R and velocity v around the earth. One of the satellites thrusters suddenly fires giving it an additional velocity v in the outward radial direction (same v). What is the new total energy of the satellite? What is...

I've been playing Kerbal Space Program. I have found the simplest way to get to an outer planet is to launch straight up at dawn and the simplest way to get to an inner planet is to launch straight up at dusk, and in neither case to mess about with going into Kerbal orbit. This got me to...

I want to compute the precession of the Moon's orbital plane, sometimes called as the precession of nodes. I assume simple harmonic motion; the Moon orbit lies in a plane X-Y, so it oscillates along z: z'' = -kz By definition k = w^2; and we know already: w = 2pi/18.6y; because the period of...

Hello all. The title of this thread sums up my question - what is the difference between orbital mechanics and astrodynamics ? Or is there a difference at all ? I have sometimes seen different uses of the terms, for example, on many sites I see " astrodynamics or orbital mechanics is ... " ...

Hello all, I have a question about space debris. The number of space debris in the low Earth orbit is huge.There are more than 170 million pieces of space debris which is greater than 1mm. So in the orbit of the Earth, what is the average distance between 2 pieces of space debris?

News stories make it sound like Rosetta is orbiting the comet. But presumably the comet's gravity is negligible, which means that orbiting it would require continuous acceleration (and therefore continuous use of energy) in order for Rosetta's motion to conform to a circle/ellipse, rather than...

Homework Statement A) Suppose you are on Earth's equator and observe a satellite passing directly overhead and moving from west to east in the sky. Exactly 12.0 hours later, you again observe this satellite to be directly overhead. How far above the Earth's surface is the satellite's orbit...

If we had a literal two body system (point masses M and m), with one orbiting the other according to Newton's Law of gravitation, would there be orbital precession? Or would they map out the same ellipse each time?

Inspired by the movie Interstellar which featured a planet orbiting a rotating supermassive black hole with an extremely high time dilation factor (slowed by a factor of 60,000 relative to observers far from the black hole), I was wondering if anyone knows of an equation for time dilation of...

I know escape velocity. in order to get out of Earth's orbit the object has to maintain 11.2 km/s speed. But If I want to throw a 1kg stone out of orbit... how much force I have to apply?

Homework Statement If you were on the top of Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador (0°S, 80°W, elevation 20,564 ft), with what minimum speed (and in what direction) would you have to throw a baseball horizontally so that it would go into a circular orbit about the earth? (Neglect air friction. Assume a...