Jeremy Emmett added Orbital Period.md  over 9 years ago

Commit id: b7cda6cbb6f9483e5f35a384b490a1f0dc2cc156

deletions | additions      

         

##Orbital Period  The evolution of the orbital period of Neptune appears to coincide with the evolution of the sem-major axis. As the semi-major axis increases, the orbital period increases. As the semi-major axis decreases, the orbital period decreases. Orbital periods are measured in units of initial orbital periods, so the evolution begins at an intial value of 1.0. When the semi-major axis reaches its first peak around 150 initial orbit periods, the orbital period peaks at a value of about 1.7, or 70%\ higher than its initial value. The orbital period ultimately rises to a value of about 2.4 around the 850th initial orbit period, more than doubling its initial orbit period. Here, like the semi-major axis, it seems to stabilize. Neptune's orbital period is, for nearly the entire extent of the simulation, higher than its initial value and increasing. Consequently, the number of orbits actually completed Neptune during the simulation is less than the number of elapsed initial orbital periods. Period data appears "boxy" because, having been calculated using the periapsis and apoapsis of each orbit, there are only as many data points as there are orbits.