On CBS Sunday Morning, there was a story with predictions of 'the planet Mars' becoming a tourist-destination by 2030. There were many-many people excited about research they were doing and plans for when they got to Mars etc.; but one question kind of distracted me ...
... probably lots of 'research' to be done there; starting with That word (the first one linked below)—I felt like there might be something more to that word ... something crucial that firms the foundation upon which the upcoming research will build ...
What Holds The Earth in Orbit around the Sun?
Gravity, yeah? The force that objects have on each other simply by 'having mass,' yeah? If there are fewer-&-fewer 'people' (units of mass) on The Earth, won't the The Earth have less Gravity? How many people can The Earth lose before it loses its hold on The Moon (and The Moon is just flung away)? or before The Earth is flung out of orbit?
... probably lots of 'research' to be done there; starting with That word (the first one linked below)—I felt like there might be something more to that word ... something crucial that firms the foundation upon which the upcoming research will build ...
The word “|Orbit|” is built on ancient words that mean “|Wheel-|Track, |Beaten |Path, |Rut, |Course” (|Orb ... or |Eye-|Socket?).
Starting my research, I looked-up "Orbit Simulator (Free)" and immediately found Academo's Orbit Simulator. It displays a Large Mass (like a sun or planet), its Satellite (a sun's planet or a planet's moon), and gives a few settings in a dashboard on the side (how many "Lunar Masses" the satellite has, and a few 'display settings').
At "50 Lunar Masses," the satellite's orbit looks like this:
I lower the 'number of Lunar Masses' and ... weird ... the orbit then warps way out beyond the original orbit, but then whips right around to the same place it originally was—for instance, at 30 Lunar Masses it looks like
What is it that keeps the satellite coming back to the original place, I wonder ... I suppose---I remember something 'one of the Green-brothers' said: When something 'orbits,' it's not "circling" the object; it's 'falling toward it and missing' ...
... But words are still evolving ... You know anything about recent developments of meaning here? Comment below!
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