3 ms·
> That 0.17nm/s² is tiny, but it really adds up over half a million years. True. But we don’t have half a million years to make an observation. 0.17nm/s² over
by bjornsing 3y ago
> That 0.17nm/s² is tiny, but it really adds up over half a million years.
True. But we don’t have half a million years to make an observation. 0.17nm/s² over a year only adds up to a displacement of 85 km, and now we’re looking for a relatively small discrepancy in this expected movement? The radius of the sun is about 696000 km, for comparison.
- JPLeRouzic 3y agoI know nothing about physics, but just finding that an orbit isn't that if a body has an elliptic orbit means it is accelerating and decelerating constantly depending where it is in the orbit? I guess it's quite easy to measure periapsis and apoapsis even for stars or planets that have a nearly circular orbit.