Gravitational Motion
In stellar dynamics, a massive body (star, black hole, etc.) can experience Brownian motion as it responds to gravitational forces from surrounding stars. The rms velocity of the massive object, of mass, is related to the rms velocity of the background stars by
where is the mass of the background stars. The gravitational force from the massive object causes nearby stars to move faster than they otherwise would, increasing both and . The Brownian velocity of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is predicted from this formula to be less than 1 km s−1.
Read more about this topic: Brownian Motion
Famous quotes containing the word motion:
“subways, rivered under streets
and rivers . . . in the car
the overtone of motion
underground, the monotone
of motion is the sound
of other faces, also underground—”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)