AST-276beginner

Newtonian Gravitation: Foundations

Newton's law of universal gravitation describes the attractive force between masses as proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of their separation. Newtonian gravitation underlies orbit determination, spacecraft navigation, satellite design, stellar mass measurement, and the first-order dynamics of planetary systems.

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Newtonian Gravitation: Foundations

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AST-275Meteoroids, Meteorites & Impact Processes: Advanced Connections→

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AST-277Newtonian Gravitation: Structures & Vocabulary→

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Newton's law of universal gravitation describes the attractive force between masses as proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of their separation.

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Gravity continually accelerates orbiting bodies toward one another.

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Planetary motions, lunar motion, laboratory torsion-balance measurements, satellite trajectories, tides, and binary-star orbits agree with Newtonian predictions in regimes where relativistic corrections are negligible.