Sentences with phrase «gravitational slingshot»
The phrase "gravitational slingshot" refers to a maneuver used by spacecraft to gain extra speed and change their trajectory by using the gravitational pull of a planet or other celestial object. It's similar to a slingshot effect that propels the spacecraft forward without using additional fuel. Full definition
When the comets drifted near one of the giant planets, gravitational slingshot interactions propelled many of them to the Oort cloud, a zone of comets far beyond Pluto's orbit.
discovermagazine.com
If that interpretation is correct, it suggests that violent gravitational slingshots in such clusters may occur more often than many astronomers had assumed.
The spacecraft has used Titan not just as a fascinating scientific target in itself, but also to provide the gravitational slingshots needed to tweak, crank and change its orbit.
On October 9th, 2013, NASA's Juno mission completed an Earth «flyby» to gain a little extra velocity (a gravitational slingshot maneuver that steals a tiny bit of Earth's momentum) to get it to Jupiter in 2016.
The solution was gravitational slingshots that would send Galileo around Venus and twice past Earth to build up enough speed to hurl it at Jupiter.
«The most likely explanation for the production of the runaway BN star is that it was ejected by a gravitational slingshot from theta - 1C,» says Chatterjee.
«Generally, the least massive of those three stars will undergo a gravitational slingshot, and will be ejected from the system.»
Although astronomers have detected other EKOs whose orbits lie mostly 50 AUs, these objects have very eccentric orbits, and almost all eventually move inward to within 38 AUs of the Sun, which place them within Neptune's gravitational reach and so these EKOs are generally thought to have been scattered out to their present orbits by a gravitational slingshot with Neptune to become part of the «Scattered Disk.»
Each gravitational slingshot robbed the black holes of momentum, moving the pair ever closer together, until finally they merged, forming one supermassive black hole that still resides in the galaxy's center.
Physicist: A gravitational slingshot (or «gravity assist») is a slick way to pick up speed using a moving planet's gravity.