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Questions tagged [lagrange-point]

Questions on any of the 5 locations where a small object can maintain a stable orbital configuration with respect to two co-orbiting larger bodies.

10 votes
3 answers
617 views

Is there a ceiling for stable L4 or L5 masses?

L4 and L5, the Lagrange points 60 degrees leading and trailing an orbiting body, are famous for being stable. A well known example is the Trojan asteroids at the Sun-Jupiter L4 and L5. Nodding to ...
HopDavid's user avatar
  • 1,422
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can dark matter accumulate at Lagrange points?

Interplanetary dust can accumulate at Lagrange points . "Kordylewski cloud - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kordylewski_cloud But can dark matter accumulate at Lagrange points ...
user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
2k views

Parking a telescope at a Lagrange point: is this a good idea from a debris point of view?

The James Webb space telescope is supposed to be located at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point. Do we expect the region around that point to have a higher concentration of space debris, asteroids, dust,...
FrenchKheldar's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
696 views

How stable are Lissajous orbits?

Now that the Gaia Space Telescope is on it's way to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point (SEL2), I start wondering about the stability of Gaia's orbit there. The Planck Telescope is already there, as was ...
Alexander Janssen's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
569 views

Why are telescopes positioned in Lagrange points?

In this Wikipedia article about the list of space telescopes to be launched (which I assume is exhaustive), of the 11 telescopes yet to be launched, 6 will be positioned at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange ...
user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
987 views

Will JWST be as durable as the hubble telescope?

JW Space Telescope is designed for a 5-10 year mission duration. Seeing as Hubble and other space missions have paved the way for JWST for reliability issues, It even has zero friction gyro's with 100+...
bandybabboon's user avatar
  • 4,268
7 votes
2 answers
369 views

Can the Gaia telescope detect small temporarily captured asteroids near its Lagrange orbit?

The Gaia space telescope is in a Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2. The orbit period is about 180 days and the size of the orbit is 263,000 x 707,000 x 370,000 km. It has been ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
  • 11.4k
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Time in 0 gravity points

If being close to a supermassive body like a black hole makes time pass more slowly for us than for an observer from a point of view with a weaker gravitational field, if we get to be at a point in ...
user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
69 views

What fraction of the time is EM-L2 in darkness on average?

This answer to the question How wide is the Moon's umbra and penumbra at EM-L2? calculates the widths of the umbra and penumbra at a distance from the Moon equal to the distance from EM-L2 from ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 30.7k
3 votes
1 answer
632 views

Lagrange points and the radius of the Hill sphere

(Disclaimer: I know the "Hill sphere" is just an approximation of something which isn't genuinely spherical.) In a two-body system, the approximate formula for the Hill sphere radius of the smaller ...
Astrid_Redfern's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
4k views

Is there a Lagrange point between the earth and the moon?

Is there a Lagrange point between the earth and moon where a space station could sit forever without orbiting around either? Just curious, but it seems like a place like that would be perfect for ...
user11937382's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
281 views

How wide is the Moon's umbra and penumbra at EM-L2?

Measuring the total width of the Moon's umbra and penumbra at EM-L2, 64,700 km, how wide would the shadow be?
Bob516's user avatar
  • 1,489