Questions tagged [orbital-mechanics]
The application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to the practical problems concerning the motion of rockets and other spacecraft.
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How quickly would these changes happen if the moon were to suddenly disappear?
There's a lot of articles and videos on the topic of what would happen if the moon were to suddenly disappear. Two consequences that seem to come up often are an increase in variation of Earth's axial ...
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What can be learned from viewing the sun on earth during a total eclipse that cannot be studied by spacecraft in orbit?
I understand that total eclipses are a fantastic time to study the sun's corona, and the reason for this is because the much brighter photosphere is blocked by the moon. But, couldn't the Parker solar ...
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Basics of Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery (THOR) - simple breakdown of how it works?
The New York Times's April 30, 2024 Killer Asteroid Hunters Spot 27,500 Overlooked Space Rocks begins:
With the help of Google Cloud, scientists churned through hundreds of thousands of images of the ...
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Relative translational dynamics of two spacecraft in Keplerian orbit
I need your help understanding some equations in a paper about autonomous rendezvous and proximity operation. The paper is available at this link, but I will summarize the main point in the following.
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Could a planet or its moon be synchronously tidally locked with the sun, but still in orbit with its moon/planet?
Obviously, with so many stars and presumable planets, lots of things can happen for a short time, but I'm wondering if there is a stable configuration for either twin planets or a planet with a ...
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Has anyone attributed a specific Baily's bead to a specific feature on the Moon? If so, when was this first done?
From Wikipedia's Baily's beads:
Lunar topography has considerable relief because of the presence of mountains, craters, valleys and other topographical features. The irregularities of the lunar limb ...
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Is the Moon really oscillating around its orbit as seen from Earth?
While simulating today's eclipse, I see something I have never noticed or learnt:
Stellarium shows an oscillation of the Moon's trajectory around its orbit as seen from Earth.
Is it real or a ...
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How can I plot a rotary cam for the equation of time? [closed]
I'd like to use Solidworks to create a cam (peanut looking) for computing the equation of time in a pocket watch. Would appreciate any point to the right direction or advice.
Audemars Piguet EoT
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Finding the cartesian position of the lunar ascending node
What I'm trying to derive
The cartesian position of the lunar ascending node relative to the true equator and equinox of date reference frame. My issue is I'm getting a bit tripped up with reference ...
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Converting equatorial coordinates of a comet's pole into cometocentric orbital coordinates I and Phi
The comet's spin axis orientation is usually reported in equatorial coordinates RA, Dec; however sometimes these are shown in form of the Eulerian angles equatorial obliquity (I), i.e. the angle ...
VIRGINIO OLDANI
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Is it coincidence that the earth's rotation and revolution are in the same direction?
In a reference system where the sun is static, the rotation and revolution of the earth are, when viewed from above the north pole, both counterclockwise.
Is it a coincidence that they agree? Or does ...
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Area of Influence of Lagrange points?
By which I mean, the area around a Lagrange point where the linear-force approximation of the 3-body system defined at the Lagrange point itself is "good".
Background
Consider the restricted ...
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Is this description of ecliptic times correct?
I did a brief write-up as a pet research project to explore astro-geological calculation and visualisation for
Muslim prayer times. It's not meant to be authoritative (either scientifically
or ...
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How well are planetary formation models (e.g., determining $\mathrm{\dot{M}_{planet}}$) understood in 2024?
I know that planets can form through accretion, bulging up from $0$ to their final mass $\mathrm{M_{planet}}$ at $\mathrm{M}(t_f)$. I know that when studying Planetary formation and migration theories,...
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Fractal structure of the universe
I decided to return to the question first written here after some time, since a short and succinct phrase had formed in my head that described the phenomenon that I was trying to understand.
What are ...
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