Hyperbolic orbit
As hyperbolic in which is astronomy and celestial mechanics the path of a celestial body referred to when a heavier body with respect to the shape of a hyperbola has. This is only the case when the orbital speed exceeds the escape speed of the more massive body.
In contrast to the elliptical closed Kepler orbits , hyperbolic orbits are open and have a numerical eccentricity e greater than 1 ; the borderline case between elliptical and hyperbolic shape would be the parabola with e = 1 .
Possible cases
While hyperbolic orbits occur more often relative to a certain central body, they are much rarer with regard to the inertial space. There, hyperbola-like trajectories are usually very elongated elliptical trajectories on closer analysis.
Some such cases are:
- A Martian meteorite that hits the earth : there is a hyperbolic orbit in relation to the earth, whereas in the planetary system there is a Hohmann transfer ellipse
- a sporadic meteor from the outer solar system: as above
- a celestial body from the vicinity of neighboring stars : a hyperbolic orbit relative to the sun, and approximately a circular orbit to the Milky Way
- a small, very fast partner of some double stars that are not gravitationally bound to each other. This could e.g. B. be the case with Alkor and Mizar in the Big Dipper.