- #1
dianaj
- 15
- 0
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 the position of the peak and a stable orbit at the position of the valley. But what is more normal: one can have an elliptical orbit with a mean radius being that of the vally. This is the kind of orbits our planets move in. So far so good. But the model with the spherical body only produces a single valley while we clearly have several stable elliptical orbits in our solar system. How can this be? The only answer I can come up with is that the masses of the bigger planets change the overall potential and induce several potential wells. Is this correct?
/Diana
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 the position of the peak and a stable orbit at the position of the valley. But what is more normal: one can have an elliptical orbit with a mean radius being that of the vally. This is the kind of orbits our planets move in. So far so good. But the model with the spherical body only produces a single valley while we clearly have several stable elliptical orbits in our solar system. How can this be? The only answer I can come up with is that the masses of the bigger planets change the overall potential and induce several potential wells. Is this correct?
/Diana