APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)

ta152h0 · Post by **ta152h0** » Fri May 23, 2014 5:12 pm

as far as landing on an object of low gravity ? Remember EROS ? I just hope they remember the units they use to measure with

RJN · Post by **RJN** » Fri May 23, 2014 6:34 pm

Gruyere wrote:Mmmmmmmmm ,,, gob-ular

"Globular." Fixed it. Sorry. - RJN

Jim Leff · Post by **Jim Leff** » Fri May 23, 2014 11:52 pm

geckzilla wrote:Landing on something with such low surface gravity has its own challenges.

The landing part just sounds difficult. It's the orbiting part I can't understand.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Sat May 24, 2014 2:41 pm

Jim Leff wrote:The landing part just sounds difficult. It's the orbiting part I can't understand.

Why? Any two massive bodies will orbit each other given the proper velocity.

Jim Leff · Post by **Jim Leff** » Sat May 24, 2014 3:31 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:Any two massive bodies will orbit each other given the proper velocity.

The orbiter has the mass of a pickup truck. The comet has the mass of a small asteroid - much less mass than Everest.

Or by "massive" do you mean "containing any mass at all"?

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Sat May 24, 2014 4:10 pm

Jim Leff wrote:The orbiter has the mass of a pickup truck. The comet has the mass of a small asteroid - much less mass than Everest.

Or by "massive" do you mean "containing any mass at all"?

Yes.

By my quick calculation, the orbital speed works out to around 3 cm/s for a 200 km radius orbit.

Jim Leff · Post by **Jim Leff** » Sat May 24, 2014 4:18 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
Jim Leff wrote:The orbiter has the mass of a pickup truck. The comet has the mass of a small asteroid - much less mass than Everest.

Or by "massive" do you mean "containing any mass at all"?
Yes.

By my quick calculation, the orbital speed works out to around 3 cm/s for a 200 km radius orbit.

Just doesn't seem intuitive to me. But nobody ever said physics had to be intuitive!

Starship Asterisk*

APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)

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