In stellar dynamics a box orbit refers to a particular type of orbit which can be seen in triaxial systems, that is, systems which do not possess a symmetry around any of its axes. They contrast with the loop orbits which are observed in spherically symmetric or axisymmetric systems.
In a box orbit, the star oscillates independently along the three different axes as it moves through the system. As a result of this motion, it fills in a (roughly) box-shaped region of space. Unlike loop orbits, the stars on box orbits can come arbitrarily close to the center of the system. As a special case, if the frequencies of oscillation in different directions are commensurate, the orbit will lie on a one- or two-dimensional manifold and can avoid the center. Such orbits are sometimes called "boxlets".
| Beginning of a box orbit | Many cycles of a box orbit | A closed box orbit |
Famous quotes containing the words box and/or orbit:
“I am no source of honey
So why should they turn on me?
Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.
The box is only temporary.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)