Orbital period

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For the music album, see Orbital Period (album). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2013) The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object. When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars. There are several kinds of orbital periods for objects around the Sun (or other celestial objects):

The sidereal period is the temporal cycle that it takes an object to make a full orbit, relative to the stars. This is the orbital period in an inertial (non-rotating) frame of reference. The synodic period is the temporal interval that it takes for an object to reappear at the same point in relation to two or more other objects, e.g., when the Moon relative to the Sun as observed from Earth returns to the same illumination phase. The synodic period is the time that elapses between two successive conjunctions with the SunEarth line in the same linear order. The synodic period differs from the sidereal period due to the Earth's orbiting around the Sun. The draconitic period, or draconic period, is the time that elapses between two passages of the object through its ascending node, the point of its orbit where it crosses the ecliptic from the southern to the northern hemisphere. This period differs from the sidereal period because both the orbital plane of the object and the plane of the ecliptic precess with respect to the fixed stars, so their intersection, the line of nodes, also precesses with respect to the fixed stars. Although the plane of the ecliptic is often held fixed at the position it occupied at a specific epoch, the orbital plane of the object still precesses causing the draconitic period to differ from the sidereal period. The anomalistic period is the time that elapses between two passages of an object at its periapsis (in the case of the planets in the solar system, called the perihelion), the point of its closest approach to the attracting body. It differs from the sidereal period because the object's semimajor axis typically advances slowly. Also, the Earth's tropical period (or simply its "year") is the time that elapses between two alignments of its axis of rotation with the Sun, also viewed as two passages of the object at right ascension zero. One Earth year has a slightly shorter interval than the solar orbit (sidereal period) because the inclined axis and equatorial plane slowly precesses (rotates in sidereal terms), realigning before orbit completes with an interval equal to the inverse of the precession cycle (about 25,770 years).

Contents

1 Relation between the sidereal and synodic periods 2 Calculation o 2.1 Small body orbiting a central body o 2.2 Orbital period as a function of central body's density o 2.3 Two bodies orbiting each other 3 Earth orbits 4 Binary stars 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External links

Relation between the sidereal and synodic periods

Table of synodic periods in the Solar System, relative to Earth:[citation needed] Sidereal period (yr) Solar surface Mercury Venus Earth Moon Apophis (near-Earth asteroid) Mars 4 Vesta 1 Ceres 10 Hygiea Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune 134340 Pluto 136199 Eris 90377 Sedna 0.069[1] (25.3 days) 0.240846 (87.9691 days) 0.615 (225 days) 1 (365.25636 solar days) 0.0748 0.886 1.881 3.629 4.600 5.557 11.86 29.46 84.32 164.8 248.1 557 12050 Synodic period (yr) 0.074 0.317 1.599 0.0809 7.769 2.135 1.380 1.278 1.219 1.092 1.035 1.012 1.006 1.004 1.002 1.00001 Synodic period (d) 27.3 115.88 583.9 29.5306 2,837.6 779.9 504.0 466.7 445.4 398.9 378.1 369.7 367.5 366.7 365.9 365.1

In the case of a planet's moon, the synodic period usually means the Sun-synodic period. That is to say, the time it takes the moon to complete its illumination phases, completing the solar phases for an astronomer on the planet's surface the Earth's motion does not determine this value for other planets because an Earth observer is not orbited by the moons in question. For example, Deimos's synodic period is 1.2648 days, 0.18% longer than Deimos's sidereal period of 1.2624 d.[citation needed]

Calculation
Small body orbiting a central body
According to Kepler's Third Law, the orbital period other in a circular or elliptic orbit is: (in seconds) of two bodies orbiting each

where:

is the orbit's semi-major axis, in meters is the standard gravitational parameter, in is the gravitational constant, is the mass of the more massive body.

For all ellipses with a given semi-major axis the orbital period is the same, regardless of eccentricity.

Orbital period as a function of central body's density

When a very small body is in a circular orbit barely above the surface of a sphere of radius R and average density in g/cm3, the above equation simplifies to:[citation needed]

So, for the Earth as central body (or for any other spherically symmetric body with the same average density) we get:[citation needed] hours and for a body made of water[citation needed] hours

Thus, as an alternative for using a very small number like G, the strength of universal gravity can be described using some reference material, like water: the orbital period for an orbit just above the surface of a spherical body of water is 3 hours and 18 minutes. Conversely, this can be used as a kind of "universal" unit of time if we have a unit of mass, a unit of length and a unit of density.[citation needed]

Two bodies orbiting each other

In celestial mechanics when both orbiting bodies' masses have to be taken into account the orbital period can be calculated as follows:[citation needed]

where:

is the sum of the semi-major axes of the ellipses in which the centers of the bodies move, or equivalently, the semi-major axis of the ellipse in which one body moves, in the frame of reference with the other body at the origin (which is equal to their constant separation for circular orbits), is the sum of the masses of the two bodies, is the gravitational constant.

Note that the orbital period is independent of size: for a scale model it would be the same, when densities are the same (see also Orbit#Scaling in gravity).[citation needed] In a parabolic or hyperbolic trajectory the motion is not periodic, and the duration of the full trajectory is infinite.[citation needed]

Earth orbits
orbit altitude center-toabove center the Earth's distance surface 0 km speed Orbital period 85 minutes specific orbital energy -62.6 MJ/kg

Earth's surface 6,400 km (for comparison) 6,600 to 8,400 km 6,900 to

7.89 km/s (17,650 mph)

Low Earth orbit

200 to 2,000 km 500 to

Molniya orbit

circular orbit: 7.8 to 6.9 km/s (17,450 mph to 15,430 89 to 128 mph) respectively -29.8 MJ/kg min elliptic orbit: 8.2 to 6.5 km/s respectively 10.0 to 1.5 km/s (22,370 11 h 58 -4.7 MJ/kg

46,300 km GEO Orbit of the Moon 42,000 km

39,900 km mph to 3,335 mph) respectively 35,786 km 3.1 km/s (6,935 mph)

min 23 h 56 min -4.6 MJ/kg

363,000 to 357,000 to 1.08 to 0.97 km/s (2,416 to 27.3 days -0.5 MJ/kg 406,000 km 399,000 km 2,170 mph) respectively

Binary stars
Binary star Orbital period AM Canum Venaticorum 17.146 minutes Beta Lyrae AB 12.9075 days Alpha Centauri AB 79.91 years Proxima Centauri - Alpha Centauri AB 500,000 years or more

Physics - Formulas - Synodic and Sidereal Periods

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One of the many tools used in Astronomy are the formulas used to determine Orbital Motion. There are two basic forms of orbits:

Sidereal Period Synodic Period

Sidereal period, as indicated by the accuracy of sidereal time, is an actual measure of a complete orbit relative to the stars (since the stars are unmoving - or at least moving very slowly). A synodic period is a rotation of a planet so that it appears to be in the same place in the night sky. We have two formulas that will allow us to determine the sidereal rotation period of the other 8 planets in our Solar System by using the synodic period (simply by observation). For the planets Venus and Mercury, we would use:

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For Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto we would use:

P = sidereal period in both equations S = synodic period in both equations E = Earth's orbit in both equations. Because Earth's rotation is 1 year, E = 1 in both equations. Here is an example, based on the reference text: To find the sidereal period of Jupiter: P = sidereal period E=1 S = 1.092 years (the observed synodic period)

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