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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Will all satellites get inevitably tidally locked to their planet?
Are there cases or conditions in which an object orbiting another one (e.g. a satellite and its planet) does not get tidally locked to it?
For example, in this question, it is mentioned that a large ...
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Can rings last around planets indefinitely?
Apparently, Saturn is losing its rings (https://weather.com/en-IN/india/space/news/2023-05-04-saturn-is-losing-its-rings-webb-may-tell-us-how-long-they-have-left) However, is there any way or ...
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Can a solar system exist where the second planet rotates fast, and the third planet is tidally locked to their star?
Today I read about the Romulan home star system and it looks like it might be impossible for such a star system to exist.
Memory Alpha describes Remus:
Remus was tidally locked, with one ...
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What is the shape of orbit assuming gravity does not depend on distance?
We know that the orbit of the earth is elliptical considering the force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. But assume that, gravity does not depend on distance. ...
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Do all orbits emit gravitational waves?
In principle, all orbits in the universe should progressively decay due to the emission of gravitational waves. However, does this always happen? Are there any kind of orbits that do not decay as they ...
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RA/Dec of a meteor shower's radiant point based on its associated comet's orbit; simple set of equations? "Classic" early reference to cite?
Below this answer to Why are Delta Aquariids “for the southern hemisphere” while the Perseids are “for the north”? I wrote the comment:
+1 To make this complete, ...
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What is the difference between SPICE kernels and JPL Development Ephemerides? Is a DE just a bunch of kernels on a string?
My imposter syndrome is acting up again after I posted several comments under:
What is the mathematics needed for understanding DE440 and translating it into xyz coordinates?
Now I feel like I don't ...
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What is the mathematics needed for understanding DE440 and translating it into xyz coordinates?
I would like to write my own code to process NASA's DE440/DE441 ephemerides, but I do not know the mathematics needed to do this.
I understand packages such as pyephem have implemented variations of ...
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What is the antonym of "closest approach"?
The distance from Earth to Mars, during their closest approach, is about 55 million kilometers.
At their furthest apart, that distance would be about 401 million kilometers.
Distance
at closest ...
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Code for Gauss's method orbit determination
I'm trying to calculate the state vectors of the ISS using Gauss's method with three sets of values (right ascension, declination and sidereal time). I'm following the method described in "...
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Why did the path of J002E3 pass through almost the same point four times?
In 2002–2003, an object called J002E3 passed close to the earth in a chaotic orbit.
According to NASA CNEOS (Center for Near Earth Object Studies) the orbit looked like this:
(This is a screenshot of ...
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What moons have cleared their orbits?
The Wikipedia article Clearing the Neighborhood lists three numeric parameters that can be calculated for bodies orbiting the Sun as a way to indicate orbital dominance: Stern and Levinson's $\Lambda$,...
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Are there such circumbinary planet configurations that two suns move towards each other by the sky?
Is it possible that suns move towards each other (not necessarily in opposite directions)? Such a configuration would cause interesting dusk and midday light cycles, in my opinion.
Basically the ...
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Is it possible to have satellites (natural or not) orbit the same celestial object in different directions ? (clockwise, counterclockwise)
Is it possible to have satellites (natural or not) orbit the same celestial object in different directions, or is the orbital direction dependent on the celestial object's spin?
Also, is the direction ...
CommunityBot
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largest balanced mass objects in Earth's L4 & L5 Lagrange points?
What is the largest single-object mass that would allow two objects of equal mass to have a stable orbit, one each, in Earth's L4 and L5 Lagrange points?
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