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The term "unit distance" is also used for the length (A). From this definition, the mean distance of Earth from the Sun works out to 1.000 000 03 au, but with perturbations by the other planets, which do not average to zero over time, the average distance is 1.000 000 20 au. [6]
The standard gravitational parameter μ of a celestial body is the product of the gravitational constant G and the mass M of that body. For two bodies, the parameter may be expressed as G ( m 1 + m 2 ) , or as GM when one body is much larger than the other: μ = G ( M + m ) ≈ G M . {\displaystyle \mu =G(M+m)\approx GM.}
This quantity is sometimes referred to informally as little g (in contrast, the gravitational constant G is referred to as big G). The precise strength of Earth's gravity varies with location. The agreed-upon value for standard gravity is 9.80665 m/s 2 (32.1740 ft/s 2) by definition. [4]
In the patched conic approximation, once an object leaves the planet's SOI, the primary/only gravitational influence is the Sun (until the object enters another body's SOI). Because the definition of r SOI relies on the presence of the Sun and a planet, the term is only applicable in a three-body or greater system and requires the mass of the ...
The symbol N represents the number of bodies, which can grow quite large if one includes the Sun, 8 planets, dozens of moons, and countless planetoids, comets and so forth. However the influence of the Sun on any other body is so large, and the influence of all the other bodies on each other so small, that the problem can be reduced to the ...
The table below shows comparative gravitational accelerations at the surface of the Sun, the Earth's moon, each of the planets in the Solar System and their major moons, Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. For gaseous bodies, the "surface" is taken to mean visible surface: the cloud tops of the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), and the ...
The surface gravity, g, of an astronomical object is the gravitational acceleration experienced at its surface at the equator, including the effects of rotation. The surface gravity may be thought of as the acceleration due to gravity experienced by a hypothetical test particle which is very close to the object's surface and which, in order not to disturb the system, has negligible mass.
Solving the Kepler problem is essential to calculate the bending of light by gravity and the motion of a planet orbiting its sun. Solutions are also used to describe the motion of binary stars around each other, and estimate their gradual loss of energy through gravitational radiation .