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  2. Kepler's laws of planetary motion - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler's_laws_of_planetary...

    This captures the relationship between the distance of planets from the Sun, and their orbital periods. Kepler enunciated in 1619 [16] this third law in a laborious attempt to determine what he viewed as the "music of the spheres" according to precise laws, and express it in terms of musical notation. [25] It was therefore known as the harmonic ...

  3. Earth's orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_orbit

    The Hill sphere (gravitational sphere of influence) of the Earth is about 1,500,000 kilometers (0.01 AU) in radius, or approximately four times the average distance to the Moon. [12] [nb 2] This is the maximal distance at which the Earth's gravitational influence is stronger than the more distant Sun and planets. Objects orbiting the Earth must ...

  4. Orbital eccentricity - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_eccentricity

    The eccentricity of an elliptical orbit can be used to obtain the ratio of the apoapsis radius to the periapsis radius: = (+) = + For Earth, orbital eccentricity e ≈ 0.016 71 , apoapsis is aphelion and periapsis is perihelion, relative to the Sun.

  5. Orbit equation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_equation

    In astrodynamics, an orbit equation defines the path of orbiting body around central body relative to , without specifying position as a function of time.Under standard assumptions, a body moving under the influence of a force, directed to a central body, with a magnitude inversely proportional to the square of the distance (such as gravity), has an orbit that is a conic section (i.e. circular ...

  6. True anomaly - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_anomaly

    It is the angle between the direction of periapsis and the current position of the body, as seen from the main focus of the ellipse (the point around which the object orbits). The true anomaly is usually denoted by the Greek letters ν or θ , or the Latin letter f , and is usually restricted to the range 0–360° (0–2π rad).

  7. Darwin–Radau equation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Radau_equation

    where R p is the mean polar radius and R e is the mean equatorial radius. For Earth , q ≈ 3.461391 × 10 − 3 {\displaystyle q\approx 3.461391\times 10^{-3}} and ϵ ≈ 1 / 298.257 {\displaystyle \epsilon \approx 1/298.257} , which yields C M R e 2 ≈ 0.3313 {\displaystyle {\frac {C}{MR_{e}^{2}}}\approx 0.3313} , a good approximation to the ...

  8. Elliptic orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_orbit

    In the Solar System, planets, asteroids, most comets, and some pieces of space debris have approximately elliptical orbits around the Sun. Strictly speaking, both bodies revolve around the same focus of the ellipse, the one closer to the more massive body, but when one body is significantly more massive, such as the sun in relation to the earth ...

  9. Earth radius - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_radius

    Earth radius (denoted as R 🜨 or R E) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid (an oblate ellipsoid), the radius ranges from a maximum (equatorial radius, denoted a) of nearly 6,378 km (3,963 mi) to a minimum (polar radius, denoted b) of nearly 6,357 km (3,950 mi).