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That video animation is bizarre, because it seems like the asteroid changes the direction of its orbit around the sun. But am I right in interpreting this from
by SamBam 3y ago
That video animation is bizarre, because it seems like the asteroid changes the direction of its orbit around the sun.
But am I right in interpreting this from the perspective of the Earth being stationary, and actually the asteroid keeps on moving around the sun in the same direction but sometimes we were catching up to the asteroid, and sometimes it was catching up to us?
- datameta 3y agoYes, sometimes our velocity relative to the Sun is greater than the asteroid's depending on where in the orbit we are, and vice versa.
- onetimeuse92304 3y agoYes, the orbit is visualised in relation to the Earth-Sun system. Yes, the asteroid and Earth are catching up to each other and actually exchanging energy (although the effect on Earth is probably not measurable).
- kibwen 3y agoWikipedia has more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit
- piecerough 3y agoThanks for writing this question up ;)
- demondemidi 3y agoThree body mechanics leads to some weird solutions.