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Orbital decay is a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods. These orbiting bodies can be a planet and its satellite , a star and any object orbiting it, or components of any binary system .
The orbital period is decreasing at 2.373 × 10 −11 seconds per second giving a characteristic timescale of 210,000 years. [1] This decay is mostly due to the emission of gravitational waves, however 7% of the decay could be due to tidal losses. [1] The decay is predicted to go for 130,000 years when the orbital period should reach 5 minutes.
Orbital decay is much slower at altitudes where atmospheric drag is insignificant. Slight atmospheric drag , lunar perturbation , and solar wind drag can gradually bring debris down to lower altitudes where fragments finally re-enter, but this process can take millennia at very high altitudes.
The sensors deteriorate over time, and corrections are necessary for satellite drift and orbital decay. Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites, making intercalibration difficult.
[1] [2] Simplified General Perturbations (SGP) models apply to near earth objects with an orbital period of less than 225 minutes. Simplified Deep Space Perturbations (SDP) models apply to objects with an orbital period greater than 225 minutes, which corresponds to an altitude of 5,877.5 km, assuming a circular orbit. [3]
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The first indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves came in 1974 from the observed orbital decay of the Hulse–Taylor binary pulsar, which matched the decay predicted by general relativity as energy is lost to gravitational radiation.
A reboost is the process of boosting the altitude of an artificial satellite in Low Earth Orbit [1] [2] [3] in order to delay its atmospheric re-entry due to orbital decay. [ 3 ] See also