Math used in astronomy?

Question

What kind of math is used to (for example) make a 'flyby' of the planet Neptune and then take photos of it? I never cease to be amazed at how after so many years after launch, a sattalite can rendevous as programed.

Answer 1

Geometry, trigonometry, calculus...
All are used to make the computations for rendezvous of other planets, asteroids, and the like.
Orbital mechanics is complicated... I've never been extremely good at these higher maths, but I'm glad there are people out there who are!
Clear Skies!
Bobby

Answer 2

James -

I have to tell you about my graduate level class in orbital mechanics at the University of Michigan. It was taught by an older German gentleman (Prof. Buning), who is still revered in the aerospace dept. there decades later. The class was taught in a question and answer format - like the Paper Chase on television a few years back. If you were not prepared every day, you regretted it. If you were prepared, it was an absolutely terrific experience. The calculus was no more difficult than the stuff kids get in freshman calc now, and I learned a lot very rapidly. Our semester field trip was a road trip (pay our own expenses) to watch the Apollo 17 launch - with passes to the press section provided by Dr Buning. I wish everyone with the slightest interest in space travel could have shared this experience. The math was not that tough - the course discipline was tough but extremely worthwhile.

Answer 3

If the solar system were a very simple place, we could just take Newton's equations of motion and gravitation and just do a little calculus and be done. But Newton's equations are only simple if you have two bodies interacting with each other. It gets much harder when you move from a two-body problem to a three-body problem or higher number of bodies. And if you are sending a spacecraft to Uranus, you have to take into account, the Earth, Sun, Uranus, the spacecraft itself, as well as the Earth's moon, and Jupiter and Saturn, and other bodies.

As a result, solving equations analytically is not practical, and rocket scientist instead rely on computational methods, in which all the known forces are evaluated in steps over many very small time increments.

Answer 4

you need to appear up Kepler's rules of action, Newton's rules, some documents on the two particular and time-honored Relativity, radiation emissions (enormously as they relate to stars), Hawking Evaporation and his different artwork on Black Holes, considerable sequence stars and how mass pertains to brightness and sturdiness on stars, rules of gravity and orbits, gravitational lensing, Doppler outcomes (enormously for shifting of sunshine frequencies), adsorption and emission lines, black physique radiation, and area-time curvature. an straight forward google seek of any of those will supply you lots of formulation and pics to apply. ensure you comprehend what the flaws you place into your presentation advise although, or you run the not-insignificant probability of looking very, very silly while all of us asks you a question.

Answer 5

It is not only math, it is physics. The Newton laws of gravitation are great

Answer 6

probably calculus which for me is a total biyatch! Very, very difficult to wrap my mind around calculus. I've always felt inferior because of it.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrodynamics

this isnt really easy reading, but skim it over once, then talk to someone about it, then try again.