ASTRON 103 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Escape Velocity, Lorentz Factor, Astronomical Object
Document Summary
An object in orbit is falling but is has large enough horizontal velocity to never hit the surface of the object it is orbiting. Gravity is a pull felt between all objects with mass. The force of gravity between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Objects near the surface of earth all accelerate downward at the same rate, one g - about 9. 8 m/sec2. The surface gravity felt on other bodies such as the mood differs from that on the earth. Measuring a body"s mass using orbital motion (unit 17) Because gravity depends on an object"s mass, orbital motions can be used to determine the mass of an object. The centripetal force is the force needed to make an object curve along a path with a given radius at a given speed.
