Solar system Definition and 311 Threads

The Hubble law v=Hd is basic to Cosmology. Among other good things, it teaches us an absolute criterion for motion and idea of time ("universe time") that are useful in Cosmology. The Law refers to distances d between stationary observers---observers at rest relative to the Background of...

Hi, for all of you we´ve made new user-friendly interactive 3D model of solar system and night sky with real-time planet´s positions. http://www.solarsystemscope.com/ (requires flash) Application in a simple way helps students and laymen to understand the movements of the planets and...

Hi I need to write a program in JAVA which simulates the solar system. I'll be using the Beeman's algorithm seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeman%27s_algorithm" My question is that if I have the vectors for : velocity, acceleration and position how do I decompose them into there x...

The Frost Line is the distance from the Sun where the radiation from the Sun becomes too dim to make ice sublimate into vapour. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_line_%28astrophysics%29" . It is important because it explains why only terrestrial planets exist inside this boundary. I'm...

Can anyone help me please? Are they all elliptic or just some? I need to know for planets, comets, moons and satellites All help greatly appreciated.

Let us assume Ho = 71 1 / s In order for our solar system to stay in orbit around the milky way, the escape velocity must be greater than the recessional. Resc > Rrec (2GM / R)^1/2 > HoR Now let's refer to Kepler's third law to substitute in for the mass. T^2 = 4π^2R^3 / GM M = 4π^2R^3 /...

Can we say that Kepler in the early 17th century was the first person to know the distance from the Earth to all the known planets? One of his laws:The square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the radius(actually the semi-major axis). So he new Saturn was about 900 million...

Hi, I am trying to create a program (3D simulator) that reproduces the Solar system's behaviour. In this idea, I am using Newton's first and second laws: F = G * m1 * m2 / ( r * r) a = F / m I already managed to create a stable system containing the Sun, Earth, Jupiter and other...

I just noticed an item in Ned Wright's "News of the Universe" about a new determination of the solar system's speed. It is roughly what we've been saying, around 370 km/s in the direction of constellation Leo, but this paper determines it with increased precision...

Hi, I am a non physicist/astronomer and having a little difficulty navigating definitions. Apologies if the question has already been covered elsewhere. If I calculate the RA/ Dec of say, the sun, on a certain date and time, how do I find the lat/long of the point on the Earth's surface...

Why don't galaxies for giant "solar systems"?

Homework Statement (a) What is the minimum speed, relative to the Sun, necessary for a spacecraft to escape the solar system if it starts at the Earth's orbit? Homework Equations Kinetic Energy=Potential Energy 0.5mv^2=rGM/(r^2) 0.5v^2=GM/r Where M is the mass of the sun, and r is the...

If a black hole is approaching towards our solar system, at what point could it be detected and is there anything we could do to avoid catastrophe? Would it make more sense to attempt to move the Earth in such a situation?

Everything is on the same plane, and I was wondering why. I mean like, if you laid a reallllly flat and thin plate out, then everything rotating around the sun would fall in that, I mean the planets, not comets or whatever.

I was perusing an astronomy homework site and came across a question in which they are asked to plot the positions of the 3 inner planets on polar graph paper. They are then asked questions about visibility and time of day in Earth's sky. The table: Location Venus Earth Mars 1 280...

Hi everyone Does anyone know of any source where the total amount of iron in the solar system has been estimated? Free iron, isotopes, oxides, etc. I've been reading here and there about element abundance on Earth and in the cosmos, and am curious if solar percentage of iron is...

Hello physicists! I'm a comp sci student and I am trying to graphically model a simplified version of the solar system as part of a programming exercise. In order to apply the gravitational forces to the planets, I need to compute the Jacobian matrix as it relates to two particles (planetary...

Hy. From what it is known today, are there any forces that go up and down in cycles ? This regarding planet earth. I talk about whatever forces in the solar system and zodiac. Something like a few days or weeks up then down, then up then down etc. Thanks!

It is a question i have been thinking about for a while. When we look into the sky, are we actually looking at other stars or are we looking at our own sun from lots of different angles, we know light bends with the gravitational pull of planets. is it not possible that the light we see from...

I been looking at various places for measured orbital mechanics properties of the solar system and found very little coorelation. It made me think that somewhere there exists an official internationally recognized database for measured properties of the solar system with an accuracy that match...

I was watching a video on the JIMO mission to Jupiter's moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. What is the approximate chance of life for these moons? And what about Titan, and Enceladus (misspelled?), can they be ruled out? What is the likelihood for water on these moons? If there is...

Homework Statement A projectile is fired from the Earth in the direction of the earth’s motion around the sun. what minimum speed must the projectile have relative to the Earth to escape the SOLAR SYSTEM? Ignore the earth’s rotation. Homework Equations escape velocity = sqt[(2G x...

I know that the Earth rotates around the sun, but what does our solar system rotate around? P.S. I'm a noob when it comes to anything related to astronomy, sorry.

This thread has been split off from the Gravity Probe B thread. Some posts here are duplicated in the above thread to keep a sense of continuity -- cristo Yes, but aren't you being dogmatic? Polestar101 is suggesting that the solar system is not orbiting the galaxy (at least, not only) but a...

Just like we have solar n lunar eclipse. What is the name given when all the bodies in our solar system alligns in one line? And what are the effects of it on earth?

I have read the wikipedia page regarding Celestial coordinate systems and searched on google, but I cannot find any coordinate systems which describe a planet's position in it's orbit. Does there exist such a system? An example use of this system would be in locating the planets in the sky. I...

Does anyone know about a free, downloadable solar system simluation that works? Please give the link.

Ok i came across this mumbo jumbo and i just wanted to know if there's any scientific proof that the sun is orbiting some other body besides the galactic center here's what he says then he gets crazy talking about Atlantis and aliens and accension and all sorts of other crackpottery that i...

If our solar system originated from the same dust / gas cloud, why do we see such differences in abundance of elements from one body to another. I can come up with two possible answers: 1. Rotation of cloud centrifuged heavier elements towards edge (Almost certainly not true, because it would...

When deriving the motions of the planets in our solar system, do we typically ignore Newton's law of gravitation between the planets themselves, since the force is negligible?

Is it possible to move the planets Mars and Venus from their current orbits to ones more likely to support life, or at least have liquid water on their surface. The only idea I can imagine is to "steal" moons from the gas giant planets and put them on a path to be captured by the gravity of the...

At the link below is an article on the recent discovery of the protective roll of solar wind within the Heliosphere against high energy cosmic radiation, such as gamma rays. shielding life on this planet (and other planets) from such radiation. I would like to discuss here the...

I was looking at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Universe_Reference_Map_%28Location%29_001.jpeg" and wondered to myself why the asteroid belt just outside of Mars is a ring...as opposed to a sphere. Then I thought, why do all the planets seem to orbit the sun on a similar plane...

Was thinking about the solar system and came to this question to which I cannot figure out a simple, definite answer. Maybe something having to do the elements that compose the planets?

Hi all, Our sun is approximately a spherical body and accordingly it has a spherical potential. I have just learned that this potential - accoring to general relativity - has a peak and a valley before smoothing out around zero at large distances. One can have an unstable circular orbit at...

Why do all of the planets revolve in just one direction? Is it due to the stability of the system? Do the satellites revolve arround Earth in all possible directions, or there are only a few?

I came across a site where a claim is made that the orbital periods and other such phenomena pertaining to the planets follow a compass point rule, ie. when translated to a compass type grid they adhere closely to the 8 main points of the compass, and that this only works when the periods etc...

I wonder how the expansion affected the solar system. Yes, I know that gravitationally bound objects had already "adapted" to the expansion. But it had adapted to the linear expansion - this assumption is valid only when we analyze a limited period of time. But the rate of the expansion...

I thought I might have gotten more of a response from my last post but I think it may need to be explained more. It is a solar system containing a yellow star (sun) at its center and an Earth like planet orbiting it. There re four more planets orbiting further out that have to be in some...

Greetings...I am looking for someone (as the title describes) capable of designing a theoretical solar system similar to Earth for a personal project I am working on. There are more details than that 'it is like earth', but i don't think they are relative while finding the person able to...

Homework Statement In a scaled solar system: Earth's radius is 6,375 km, it's scaled radius is 12.75 cm. Neptune has a radius of 24,766 km; using centimeters, what would the scaled radius of Neptune be?? Homework Equations I'm not sure what to put here; I put down what I tried below...

whats happening so that entropy is increasing?

Here's a question for the astrophysicists here: Is the commonly predicted amount of Dark Matter and its distribution in our solar system expected to be such that it has an appreciable effect on the orbital speeds of any of the bodies in our solar system?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021031071017.htm ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2002) — WASHINGTON - Researchers have found that a portion of anomalous cosmic rays -- charged particles accelerated to enormous energies by the solar wind -- results from interactions with dust grains from a...

If dark matter is evenly distributed throughout the galaxy then how much should be within the orbit of neptune?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807144236.htm ScienceDaily (Aug. 8, 2008) — Prevailing theoretical models attempting to explain the formation of the solar system have assumed it to be average in every way. Now a new study by Northwestern University astronomers, using recent...

Ok, this may be a silly question and I probably should have asked it a long time ago.. Do the planets in our solar system rotate around the sun in two dimensions? By that I mean if you take the standard XYZ coordinate system, the planets exist only in the XY plane, right? Or is this just what...

I've been wondering why in our solar system, all of the planets are in a single plane rotating around the sun. Why are there no intersecting planes? Also, would there be any solar systems with such planes? I'm not asking for any minor angles. For example, I'm asking if there's any solar...

Is there a good site somewhere on the net with a to scale animation/simulation of the solar system? I haven't seen anything yet. Thanks in advance.

If we can see equally far in every direction, which I believe is true, then that makes the Earth the centre of the known universe, does it not? I mean that means the Sun revolves around the Earth as the early church believed and Galileo was wrong to believe the Earth revolved around the...