Questions tagged [orbit]
Questions regarding an object 'falling around' another object, due to a combination of gravity and momentum.
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How to find the numerical positions of objects in the sky?
How do star locator applications such as SkyGuide, SkySafari and Stellarium get the current and future positions of
moons, planets, stars and artificial satellites in the sky?
Is there a public ...
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Can a star with a stellar mass of 1.176 with a similar composition to the Sun have a planet with these characteristics?
Imagine a solar system similar to ours that has a star with a similar composition to the Sun and a stellar mass of 1.176 and an Earthlike planet with about 1.18 times the mass of Earth in its ...
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What stellar conditions and orbital distance are needed to produce a year length of 515 Earth days and 9 Earth hours on an Earthlike planet?
A planet has a year length of 515 Earth days and 9 Earth hours. It is the same size and has the same climate as Earth. What stellar conditions would be needed to produce this and what orbital distance ...
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Which coordinate system should one use for simulating a spacecraft trajectory to the moon? [closed]
Which coordinate system is most suited for this type of problem? ecliptic? equatorial?
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Difficulty simulating trajectory of moon and sun for Apollo 11 mission
As an engineering student, I am doing a project about Kalman filtering and the mission Apollo 11. Now I tried to simulate the trajectory of the moon and sun for 3 days (the duration in which the ...
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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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Calculating Comet Position at a Given Julian Date with Available Orbital Elements
I have some orbital elements for comet P/2004 R1 (McNaught) from this dataset and I would like to calculate its position around the sun (x, y, z coordinates where the sun is at the origin) at a ...
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Eyeball planets experiencing "catastrophic" flips
This Youtube video by Anton Petrov shows research1 claiming that tidally-locked planets orbiting the same star in tight orbits may interfere with one another and one planet may cause the other to &...
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Is there an equation that can give position of a satellite around a parent body as a function of time?
I’ve been looking into this lately, and most sources I have used solve this problem numerically. I was thus wondering if there is a proper equation to solve for position without numerical, especially ...
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Are short-period comets more stable (in their orbits) than long-period ones?
I have wondered about this for a long time, but never come across an answer.....
Why the sharp distinction between short-period (P) comets of less-than-200-year orbits and those (C) with even slightly ...
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How to calculate solar ecliptic longitude
I would like to write a small script to calculate solar ecliptic longitude in relation to different locations and dates. For instance UTC + - 1...2 etc..
I know, solar ecliptic longitude is the ...
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Calculating the parameters of binary systems?
If I know the masses of the two bodies (they have equal mass), how do I calculate the two ellipse eccentricities, length of the apoapsis and speed at the apoapsis, that make stable system, as in this ...
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Would it be possible for a planet to orbit around a trinary star system in a figure 8 orbit?
I know that it is possible for a 3-body system to be "stable" in a figure-8 pattern. It's only stable if it is set up perfectly with no outside forces, but that's fine with me. If there were ...
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The possible Masses and Orbits of Hypothetical Moons of Proxima Centauri b
This question asks about the phases of a hypothetical moon of Proxima Centauri b.
What phases of a moon orbiting Proxima Centauri b could be seen?
And In my answer I suggest that Proxima Centauri b ...
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Does the Earth constantly lose mass?
The Moon is orbiting the Earth in a circular motion. To keep any object in a circular motion we need energy. Hence, does the Earth lose energy by pulling the Moon? In that case, does the Earth's ...
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Motion equation of a space engine in low-earth orbit
My goal is to simulate the movement/motion of a space capsule from low-Earth orbit with initial conditions emulating an initial thrust. Here is the code, Is it right? I know that the next step is to ...
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Can such planet orbit 61 Cygni A within a habitable zone?
I have developed a fictional planet I described here in Worldbuilding Stackexchange: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/231162/length-of-seasons-on-a-planet-with-eliptical-orbit.
Since ...
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Orbital decay of the sun's orbit around Sgr A*: is it likely?
What are the possibilities of the sun orbiting the black hole Sagittarius A* at a very close distance? Is there anything that could possibly alter the solar system's orbit, bringing it much closer to ...
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How light could the lightest objects able to exist in a stable orbit be?
Below a certain M1M2, gravity would get so weak that the masses wouldn't be able to orbit each other with stability, as other factors would overwhelm them, even in the quietest, stillest places in the ...
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Is there an orbit around the earth that experiences a total solar eclipse by the Moon at least every month?
Is there a way to design an earth orbit so that it passes through the Moon's umbra with greater frequency than total solar eclipses occur on earth's surface?
What is the maximum frequency of eclipses ...
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Problem with the Orbital Precession predicted by the Relativistic Acceleration equation used in the JPL D440-D441 Ephemerides - please advise
I have previously encountered a problem with the equation used by Yeomans and others for determining the gravitational acceleration of comets (see update in my answer to the previous question Can ...
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What is the galactocentric aberration?
At the Wikipedia about an aberration, there is the phrase:
a recommended galactocentric aberration constant of 5.8 µas/yr
What is the galactocentric aberration? How is it calculated correctly? An ...
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Galaxy plane and Earth's orbit. Connection to seasons?
From my understanding, the Earth (Solar System) crosses a center line of the galactic plane (ecliptic *edit wrong definition, sorry!), while orbiting around the Sun. The Sun also wobbles up and down ...
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Deriving orbital inclination from equatorial coordinates?
I wanted to ask if it's possible to establish a correlation between the observed equatorial coordinates of a Solar System planet, especially declination, and the planet's orbital inclination with ...
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Was Theia a planet or an asteroid?
According to an article Theia (from the Giant impact hypothesis) was an asteroid and according to The Wikipedia article about Theia Theia was an Earth trojan (which is an asteroid). Which is dubious, ...
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Observable Speed of objects orbiting a black hole
This is a mostly hypothetical question and thought experiment, and I am aware of some aspects plausibility of it are open for debate. Also, this is Version 2 of the question, as the first question was ...
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How long was a year 4 billion years ago, thus how long did it take the Earth to orbit the early Sun? [duplicate]
How long did it take the Earth to orbit the early Sun 4 billion years ago?
I'm not talking rotation, which I know has slowed over time. I'm talking about the orbital period of the early Earth. Was it ...
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How can I determine a planet's orbital size if it is moving around an oscillating star?
I'd like to know how to calculate the size of the planet's orbit, given that it is the only one orbiting around a star, and that this star is oscillating with an amplitud of 0.026'' in 25 year periods....
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Does anybody know how to solve this Earth-Venus-Sun problem?
How can I find (in terms of the angle) the moment when in the system Sun-Earth-Venus, Venus can be seen the most bright if its brightness (flow received in Earth) is proportional to the size projected ...
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Kepler ellipse orbit fit issues
I am helping my high schooler with a research paper that uses PyAstronomy to fit the orbit of stars around Sag A. It isn't working because the angles (parameters Omega, omega, and i) seem to have a ...
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Does the orbital velocity of a planet affect its escape velocity from the planet surfaces?
I'm trying to write a hard sci-fi novel with good accuracy, but when it comes to astronomy, I'm a total amateur.
Here's my fictional planet that orbit a black hole information:
Star Mass = 10000 Solar ...
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Are there any (rough) estimates of stars' orbits around the galaxy?
The Sun orbits approximately 26,000 light years away from the galactic center. Are there any other known orbital parameters relative to the galactic plane for the Sun and other stars up to some ...
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Since there is an axial tilt present on planets, does this also affect their orbital angular momentum?
I would like to know whether an axial tilt on planets will affect their orbital angular momentum since I am creating a homework regarding angular momenta of planetary bodies in the Solar System.
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Why doesn't lunar perigee always occur in the same lunar phase?
If the phases of the moon and the moon's perigee are just dependent on the point that the moon is in through it's orbit, why can perigee happen at different phases of the moon?
My thinking is this:
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orbit viewer for any date for moon
I'm aware of the NASA orbit viewer but it limits you to years > 1600 AD.
Is there an orbit viewer for any date?
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If a planet orbits an M-Star in an S-type orbit around a G star, what is the minimum distance from the G star that it could remain tidally locked?
I'm wondering how close a planet-M-dwarf system could orbit a G star and have the planet remain tidally locked to the M star. I'm curious, because I'm designing a habitable planet, and I want the ...
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Football field size object [duplicate]
The other night on my bike ride I had an object coming at me - I thought is was a flock of geese (at night -9pm cst) coming at me!
It stayed in a straight line -never vered!
Crossed over me - there ...
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What was this "light" that looked like a star moving repeating from point A to B for about 5 mins [duplicate]
I was looking in the sky one night about 9:45. There was what looked to be a shooting star but much slower and brighter more like a satellite. It was moving (from standing on earth) it looked like a ...
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Could a planet theoretically have a stable orbit between Venus and Earth OR Earth and Mars
Take a planet, identical to Earth in size, mass, gravity, rotation, etc.(but without the moon). Could this planet theoretically maintain a stable orbit for many hundreds of millions of years orbiting ...
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Can a photon orbit around a galaxy?
There are a lot of questions about photons orbitting a black hole, but I'm interested if a photon can orbit a galaxy. Our Milky Way for example has a radius of 52000 light years (according to Google) ...
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How would you calculate the "day" on a planet orbiting a red dwarf that is a companion to a larger star?
So the idea is you have an Earth-sized planet with a moon orbiting an M-class star (let's give it .25 solar masses) at 0.2 AU, with an orbital period of 63 days and a 24-hour day. Its orbit has an ...
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How can I calculate the luminosity and mass of a star only knowing it's peak wavelength and it's subtended angle?
For example if a certain star subtends an angle of 32 arcminutes at the Earth’s orbit and it's light has a peak wavelength of 500 nm, how can I find the luminosity and mass of that star?
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Why didn't passing stars destroy the Oort cloud?
Stars pass within one lightyear of Sol every half-million years or so on average. These stars enter the Oort cloud.
Each time a star passes through it's gravity will disrupt some object's orbits. How ...
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What are the orbital velocities of the other planets? For objects in a 'Low-Earth-Orbit' around planets other than Earth, e.g.?
I was pondering this question recently, but most sites I can find only mention the speeds/velocities of the planets around the Sun when I look for 'orbital velocities' of the planets.
I tried ...
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Velocity Verlet algorithm creating odd orbits
I am using the velocity Verlet integration to make an N-Body simulator but the results are odd. If I use simple Newtonian physics I get a closed orbit (btw im testing with 2 planets at first) but if I ...
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Conversion from au to mas
I am trying to verify whether the third column is correct. The second column is radius of orbit with period corresponding to Gaia DR2 observing window duration.
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Time taken calculation to reach synodic degrees between planets
I have a software tool which calculate the synodic period with degree inputs with two planets. Synodic Period is the temporal interval that it takes for an object to reappear at the same point in ...
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Is this scaling of JWST halo reasonably correct
After thinking about accurately visualizing the size of the Andromeda galaxy I began to wonder about the halo orbit of the James Webb Space Telescope. Using an estimate of 1.5E6 km for halo width and ...
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When exactly was the last time that Earth's aphelion coincided (within 24 hours) with the northern winter (December) solstice?
I would like to know in what year precisely did Earth's aphelion coincide (within 24 hours) with the northern winter (December) solstice? From what I understand, the day (on any tropical calendar) on ...
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How can I calculate an orbital elliptic trajectory from the velocity vector?
I have been struggling for a few days with this.
I know just my distance from gravity origin, gravity source mass and my actual velocity vector on the orbit.
Can I calculate whole trajectory with this?...
