Sentences with phrase «varying orbital periods»

Not exact matches

Based on photographs taken between 1937 and 1970, Sarah Lee Lippincott reported in 1971 that star A and B are separated by an «average» distance of 147 times the Earth - Sun distance (AU)(of a semi-major axis) in a circular orbit (e = 0.00) of about 2,600 years, in contrast to Josef Hopmann's (1890 - 1975) earlier report in 1958 of an elliptical orbit (e = 0.25) with an orbital period of 3,000 years and an «average» distance of 157 AU (of a semi-major axis) that varies between 118 and 196 AU.

A new study by Kaloyan Penev et al suggests that Q varies a lot depending on the tidal «forcing period» (that is, the period at which a planet would appear to orbit, if viewed when rotating with the spinning star, with an extra factor of a half since there are two tides per orbital cycle).

«While the earlier estimate of ± 20 % [Schulz, 2002] is consistent with a solar cycle (the 11 - year sunspot cycle varies in period by ± 14 %), a much higher precision would point more to an orbital cycle.

Halley's comet orbital period is on average 76 years, however its orbital path can vary due to to gravitational fields of the major planets.

Now, remember that we postulated a very eccentric orbit, this means that the tidal effect will vary greatly and be much larger when the planet is closest to the star, hence if tides can interfere with or perhaps even control generation of star spots, then the generation of the activity would be synchronized with the orbital period of the star.

«While the earlier estimate of ± 20 % [Schulz, 2002] is consistent with a solar cycle (the 11 - year sunspot cycle varies in period by ± 14 %), a much higher precision would point more to an orbital cycle.