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The equatorial plane of the orbited body for satellites orbiting with small semi-major axes; The local Laplace plane for satellites orbiting with intermediate-to-large semi-major axes; The plane tangent to celestial sphere for extrasolar objects; On the plane of reference, a zero-point must be defined from which the angles of longitude are
The reference body and the vernal point (♈︎) establish a reference direction and, together with the reference plane, they establish a reference frame. The traditional orbital elements are the six Keplerian elements , after Johannes Kepler and his laws of planetary motion .
Denoted with the symbol Ω, it is the angle from a specified reference direction, called the origin of longitude, to the direction of the ascending node (☊), as measured in a specified reference plane. [1] The ascending node is the point where the orbit of the object passes through the plane of reference, as seen in the adjacent image.
An orbital plane as viewed relative to a plane of reference. An orbital plane can also be seen in relative to conic sections, in which the orbital path is defined as the intersection between a plane and a cone. Parabolic (1) and hyperbolic (3) orbits are escape orbits, whereas elliptical and circular orbits (2) are captive.
Orbital inclination is the angle formed between the plane of an orbit and the equatorial plane of the Earth. The geographic latitudes covered by the ground track will range from –i to i, where i is the orbital inclination. [4] In other words, the greater the inclination of a satellite's orbit, the further north and south its ground track will ...
The perifocal coordinate system (with unit vectors p, q, w), against the reference coordinate system (with unit vectors I, J, K) The perifocal coordinate (PQW) system is a frame of reference for an orbit. The frame is centered at the focus of the orbit, i.e. the celestial body about which the orbit is centered.
Since the line of ascending node is the line of intersection between the orbital plane and the reference plane, it is perpendicular to both the normal vectors of the reference plane and the orbital plane (or ). Therefore, the ascending node vector can be defined by the cross product of these two vectors.
It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth directly above the Equator, the plane of the satellite's orbit is the same as the Earth's equatorial plane, and the satellite's orbital inclination is 0°. The general case for a circular ...