::Which class of asteroids is Cruithne in and do we have a page for it? |
::Well, technically you get them, but without the mass difference you lose the fundamental quality of an L-point: stability. Unless... ::*Mass A is "substantially" larger than mass B -- by about a factor of 30. ::*Mass C, at the libration point, has essentially no mass in comparison to both A and B. ::...the points aren't linearly stable and can't hold anything. Basically, the centre of gravity of the system must be pretty close to A or it doesn't work. See J.M.A. Danby's "Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics" (I think) where the ratio is discussed. -- Paul Drye |
That would be lovely, but I'm restricted to ASCII here and I'm not about to start fiddling with slashes and backslashes and capital letter O's all afternoon :P -- Paul Drye
is fascinating information, but has nothing to do with Lagrangian points or Trojan objects. Whither should it be moved?
Are you sure? I'm fairly certain that two equal masses orbiting each other would result in libration points as well -- a binary star system, for example. -- Xaonon