ASTRON 1142 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: John Couch Adams, Edmond Halley, Galilean Moons
10 Sep 2018
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A = semi-major axis of the orbit. M1 = mass of the first body. M2 = mass of the second body. The proportionality now depends on the masses of the two bodies. When one object is much more massive than the other, only the massive object is important. For planets orbiting the sun, m(sun) is so much larger than any planet that we recover kepler"s version as an approximation. Newton"s form of kepler"s 3rd law lets us measure masses from orbital motions. Mass of the sun from the earth"s orbit. Measure mass of jupiter from the orbits of the galilean moons, since. Measure the mass of the earth and moon by measuring their orbital parameters. Using newtonian gravity, edmond halley found that the orbit of the great. Comet of 1682 was similar to comets seen in 1607 and 1537. Dramatically confirmed newton"s laws of motion and gravitation. In 1781, william herschel accidently discovered the 7th planet uranus.
