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A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby which makes use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense.
The Shapiro time delay effect, or gravitational time delay effect, is one of the four classic Solar System tests of general relativity. Radar signals passing near a massive object take slightly longer to travel to a target and longer to return than they would if the mass of the object were not present.
The cosmic distance ladder (also known as the extragalactic distance scale) is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A direct distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible only for those objects that are "close enough" (within about a thousand parsecs) to Earth. The techniques ...
The extra pull of Earth's gravity decreases the object's orbital period, and at the L 2 point, that orbital period becomes equal to Earth's. Like L 1, L 2 is about 1.5 million kilometers or 0.01 au from Earth (away from the sun). An example of a spacecraft designed to operate near the Earth–Sun L 2 is the James Webb Space Telescope. [8]
Relativistic transformation of time and space coordinates from a frame moving with the station to a frame fixed with respect to the solar system center of mass. Lorentz contraction of the Earth is part of this transformation. Delay in the Earth's atmosphere. Relativistic delay due to the gravity fields of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.
Its light echoes have aided in mapping the morphology of the immediate vicinity [5] as well as in characterizing dust clouds lying further away but close to the line of sight from Earth. [6] Another example is the SN 1572 supernova observed on Earth in 1572, where in 2008, faint light-echoes were seen on dust in the northern part of the Milky Way.
In Southern California, a distinct growl of car engines are heard on the boulevards, led not by stereotypically macho characters often portrayed in street-racing films like Fast and Furious, but ...
The pull of gravity in LEO is only slightly less than on the Earth's surface. This is because the distance to LEO from the Earth's surface is much less than the Earth's radius. However, an object in orbit is in a permanent free fall around Earth, because in orbit the gravitational force and the centrifugal force balance each other out.