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In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter (the combined center of mass) or, if one body is much more massive than the other bodies of the system combined, its speed relative to the center of mass of the most massive body.
Barring detailed mass determinations, [4] the mass can be estimated from the diameter and assumed density values worked out as below. = Besides these estimations, masses can be obtained for the larger asteroids by solving for the perturbations they cause in each other's orbits, [5] or when the asteroid has an orbiting companion of known orbital radius.
Isaac Newton computed in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica the acceleration of a planet moving according to Kepler's first and second laws. The direction of the acceleration is towards the Sun. The magnitude of the acceleration is inversely proportional to the square of the planet's distance from the Sun (the inverse square law).
The space rock does not remotely pose an existential threat to life on Earth. It measures 130 to 300 feet across , a pebble compared to the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, which is estimated ...
For example, as the Earth's rotational velocity is 465 m/s at the equator, a rocket launched tangentially from the Earth's equator to the east requires an initial velocity of about 10.735 km/s relative to the moving surface at the point of launch to escape whereas a rocket launched tangentially from the Earth's equator to the west requires an ...
Four huge asteroids — and a fifth that's much smaller — are passing Earth on Thursday in their closest approaches to the planet ever recorded. 4 large asteroids, including 1 the size of a ...
The rubble would have traveled at up to about 2,200 miles (3,600 km) per hour, they found. One of the canyons, called Vallis Planck, measures about 174 miles (280 km) long and 2.2 miles (3.5 km) deep.
Near-Earth asteroids, which orbit in the inner part of the Solar System, most likely form by spin-up and mass shedding, [4] likely as a result of the YORP effect. Numerical simulations suggest that when solar energy spins a “rubble pile” asteroid to a sufficiently fast rate by the YORP effect, material is thrown from the asteroid's equator. [5]