Adiabatic invariance of an orbital action preserves action values during slow regular changes, but frequencies can vary. Closure requires rational frequency ratios, which need not persist. A slowly added harmonic component in a Kepler orbit potential produces generic apsidal precession.
Time averaging over a Kepler orbit gives , as follows from and . Consequently slow isotropic stellar mass loss preserves the secular orbital eccentricity. Conserved specific angular momentum then gives , so pericentre, apocentre and semimajor axis expand inversely with the remaining gravitational parameter.
Aligned eccentric ring 2026-10-05
An aligned eccentric ring consists of nested Kepler orbits with nearly common longitude of periapsis. Its width and surface density of a disk depend on both the distribution of semi-major axis values and the radial gradient of forced eccentricity.
For a nearly radial Kepler orbit, , so modest changes in specific angular momentum can strongly change pericentre. A planetary torque acting for a reference orbital time gives . Coherent kicks change by order itself after orbital-scale encounters, whereas uncorrelated kicks require an order- random-walk count. Both estimates are conditional on encounter geometry: a close encounter with a smaller impact parameter can give a much larger kick.
For bound old Kepler orbits, , and give a positive radius, positive isochrone scale , and positive transformed mass. The shifted energy is . For unbound old orbits with , gives an attractive unbound isochrone branch. The case is handled by the separate Kepler–harmonic radial duality.
Circumplanetary orbit 2026-10-06
An orbit about a planet. Stellar tides, radiation pressure and other perturbations can limit its stability; a sufficiently small semi-major axis compared with the Hill sphere permits a local approximately planet-centred Kepler orbit.
If release imparts no velocity kick, a grain's initial Kepler orbit under reduced stellar attraction has , , and for . Its pericentre distance remains at the dust birth ring, while its apocentre distance grows with the radiation-pressure coefficient.
Eccentricity vector 2026-10-05
For an attractive Kepler orbit with gravitational parameter , velocity and specific angular momentum , the eccentricity vector is
Its magnitude is the orbital eccentricity, and it points toward periapsis for a noncircular orbit. It is a normalized attractive Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector; it remains constant under the pure inverse-square force.
For a nearly radial Kepler orbit with pericentre , specific angular momentum is . Relative to a circular reference orbit of radius and mean motion , the instantaneous azimuthal rate changes from faster to slower at . In a rotating reference frame the polar angle has a turning point at this radius. The true anomaly there differs from by approximately .
Hill equations 2026-10-05
The unforced planar equation of motion in a rotating frame near a circular Kepler orbit has components and . They describe epicyclic motion and Keplerian shear; mutual gravity adds close-encounter forcing.
For a population with randomized vertical phases, orbital inclination , and , the effective volume probability near the planetary plane is proportional to . The collision time then scales as , at fixed stellar mass and planetary mass density. An individual inclined Kepler orbit whose orbital nodes do not intersect the planet's orbit need not collide at all.
For a Newtonian Kepler orbit, let be the total mass and the reduced mass; put , , and , with . In the convention , differentiating the acceleration gives
The two terms have zero cross tensor contraction, with squared norms and . Therefore . Substitution into the quadrupole formula in this convention, , proves the luminosity. It is nonnegative since . The formula uses a weak gravitational field, slow motion and leading radiation order; orbital averaging gives a secular luminosity.
Jerk (kinematics) 2026-10-06
The kinematic jerk is the time derivative of acceleration. For a Kepler orbit with relative position , relative velocity , , and total mass , differentiation of Newton's law of universal gravitation gives .
Taking in a radial orbit time transformation gives and . Bound Kepler orbits with map to a confining harmonic oscillator; positive energy maps to an inverted oscillator. Full angular reconstruction halves the original orbital angle.
Kepler's equation Created 2026-09-25 Updated 2026-10-03
For an elliptic Kepler orbit, Kepler's equation relates mean anomaly and eccentric anomaly by
Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-06
For the signed inverse-square force on a particle of mass , with Hamiltonian , the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector is conserved. Attraction has and repulsion has . It obeys and . For unit mass in a Kepler orbit, .
For two nearly circular Kepler orbits near a first-order period ratio, the slow resonant argument circulates on the displayed superperiod when longitude of periapsis precession is negligible. If , then . Within resonant-argument libration, this circulation formula is replaced by an amplitude-dependent libration period.
Orbital plane 2026-10-06
The plane containing a central-force Kepler orbit, perpendicular to its conserved specific angular momentum. Its orientation can be specified by an orbital inclination and an orbital node. Perturbing forces can change that orientation.
Orbital shear parameter Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
The orbital shear parameter measures the fractional radial decrease in orbital angular frequency. A Kepler orbit has , while rigid rotation has . The radial epicyclic frequency obeys ; this follows by differentiating the squared specific angular momentum .
Orbit-averaged drag work 2026-10-05
A weak perturbing relative acceleration changes specific orbital energy at rate . Since for a Kepler orbit,
For a circular Kepler orbit under with constant , the constant-force term averages to zero over an unperturbed orbit. Thus . This is a leading-order orbital average; a strong constant force can distort the orbit instead.