Standard Gravitational Parameter - Small Body Orbiting A Central Body

Small Body Orbiting A Central Body

Under standard assumptions in astrodynamics we have:

where m is the mass of the orbiting body, M is the mass of the central body, and G is the gravitational constant.

For all circular orbits around a given central body:

where r is the orbit radius, v is the orbital speed, ω is the angular speed, and T is the orbital period.

The last equality has a very simple generalization to elliptic orbits:

where a is the semi-major axis. See Kepler's third law.

For all parabolic trajectories rv2 is constant and equal to 2μ. For elliptic and hyperbolic orbits μ = 2a|ε|, where ε is the specific orbital energy.

Read more about this topic:  Standard Gravitational Parameter

Famous quotes containing the words small, body, orbiting and/or central:

    “Mrs. Small went to the kitchen for her pocketbook
    And came back to the living room with a peculiar look
    And the coffee pot.
    Pocketbook. Pot.
    Pot. Pocketbook.”
    —Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    “but as an Eagle
    His cloudless thunderbolted on thir heads.
    So vertue giv’n for lost,
    Deprest, and overthrown, as seem’d,
    Like that self-begott’n bird
    In the Arabian woods embost,
    That no second knows nor third,
    And lay e’re while a Holocaust,
    From out her ashie womb now teem’d
    Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
    When most unactive deem’d,
    And though her body die, her fame survives,
    A secular bird ages of lives.”
    —John Milton (1608–1674)

    “Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing—instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”
    —Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)

    “In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a “dictator” substitutes himself for the central committee.”
    —Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)