Celestial Mechanics is the branch of astronomy devoted to the study of the motion of the celestial bodies on the basis of the laws of gravitation.
Questions tagged [celestial-mechanics]
734 questions
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Why should the trick solution to the problem of how long it takes to fall into the sun work?
There is a famous problem which asks:
Suppose an object is held at 1 au from the Sun and released from rest. How long does it take to fall into the Sun (neglecting the size of the sun)?
The trick solution is to imagine the trip into the sun as the…
Mark Eichenlaub
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Two bodies orbiting around common barycenter
Assume $2$ bodies of mass $M_1$ and $M_2$ orbiting in a plane around their common barycenter $G$. It means the axis $(M_1M_2)$ is rotating in the plane around a vertical axis through $G$. [Please refer to picture]. Assume uniform circular motion…
Andrew
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How does tugging objects across long distances work?
Let's say there's an object on Mars, I stand on Earth, and hold a non-elastic, unbreakable rope (or an iron bar or something) tied to the object on Mars. And I try to tug it.
The tug cannot travel over the speed of light, right? So if I'm tugging…
Štěpán Bartoš
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Is it feasible for an unmanned vehicle to travel from outside the atmosphere of one planet to another without additional propulsion?
Within the Solar System (or any other system for that matter) -
Is it feasible for an unmanned vehicle to travel from outside the atmosphere of one planet to another without additional propulsion? That is to say
Given a vehicle in orbit around a…
Everyone
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Research groups in celestial mechanics
This Exchange may not be the right place to to ask this question, but I would like to know prominent research groups working in celestial mechanics. Although I'm interested in celestial mechanics, since my background is mathematics, I don't know…
user112897
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Questions related to Lagrange points
For me, these two graphs are inherently different. The first graph portrays a "forbidden region" which is completely filled in, the other shows a collection of curves. Whats the difference here? Whats the difference in the interpretation?
How…
DLV
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Why does an orbit become parabolic when total orbital energy is zero?
I stumbled across while reading other stack posts where there was a discussiom of non calculus ways to find the trajectory under E negative and E positive conditions Feynmans technique was well used there, i was interested if that techinque can be…
Orion_Pax
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Voyager Speed After Launch
I am learning about gravity assist. Therefore I am interested in the flight of voyager 2. i found this diagram from Wikipedia and I have trouble understanding the massive acceleration of voyager after launch. I thought voyager was accelerated to sun…
user123962