Remember our discussion a while back about the asteroid Cruithne? How we learned that its orbit is horseshoe-shaped?
I'd love to see the math on that.
I'd love to hear Copernicus's reaction to that math.
I've got here in my notes:
"Cruithne's path is much more complicated than simple satellite motion; pondering the diagrams carefully should help clarify matters....Hoseshoe orbits are named because of their shape in a reference frame which corotates with their accompanying planet, and have been known theoretically for many years. "
--Paul Wiegert, previously of the Dept. of Physics and Astonomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Point is: There aren't just elliptical orbits--or circular as Copernicus thought. The horseshoe one is the oddest one I know of. Any other unusual orbits we should know about?
AnnaS: I promise you two very good words tomorrow. I left my physics book at home.
