Re:China lands Chang'e-4 on far side of Moon
by hanoz on Thursday January 03, 2019 @08:46AM
(#18815019)
So how can this craft orbit a point that is not a gravity well but a gravity hill, so to speak?
Re:China lands Chang'e-4 on far side of Moon
by Symmetry on Thursday January 03, 2019 @09:50AM
(#18815459)
It's a gravity saddle! From Earth's perspective it's a hill in the r direction but a well in the phi/theta directions. To orbit at a location always visible from Earth it needs to move in the phi/theta directions but moving the the r direction doesn't help, so it doesn't.
Re:China lands Chang'e-4 on far side of Moon
by Latteland on Thursday January 03, 2019 @10:48AM
(#18815943)
And you clearly know this but i had to refresh my own knowledge of spherical coordinates - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_coordinate_system
The L4 and L5 Lagrange points are the stable ones. Something that finds its way there is going to stick around indefinitely. That's why many planets have asteroids in the L4 and L5 they make with the Sun. These are called Trojan asteroids and the names of the Jupiter-Sun Trojans are taken from the Trojan war.