How does mass affect the shape of an orbit? Orbits at minima are stable, since a small displacement increases the energy and thus creates a restoring force in the opposite direction. Do photons curve spacetime?Ĭircular orbits are possible at maxima and minima of the effective-potential. It gradually rotates, so that Mercury’s point of closest approach to the Sun – called the perihelion of the orbit – drifts, or precesses about 0.001 degrees per century. Mercury, like the other planets, traces an elliptical orbit as it travels around the sun, - at least, approximately. Q: Why is Mercury orbit elliptical? Orbits are caused by the planet’s interactions with the sun as it moves around by the gravity of the sun. Earth’s orbit is slightly eccentric, whereas Mercury’s orbit is the most eccentric because it is the closest planet to the Sun. The finding might force cosmologists and astronomers to reexamine how magnetic fields have shaped the evolution of the cosmos.Ĭan energy bend space-time? Why is Mercury’s orbit weird? Do magnets bend space-time?īy reanalyzing the basic equations of general relativity, a researcher has discovered that magnetic fields tend to flatten and stiffen the fabric of space-time. Light has energy, energy is equivalent to mass, and mass exerts gravitational force. The planets simply follow the shortest path through spacetime around the Sun, thus explaining their orbits. The planetary motions The Sun is the largest object in our Solar System, so, according to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, the Sun will “warp” spacetime in the Solar System by the largest amount. How does general relativity explain orbits?

That curvature is what you feel as gravity. The reason gravity pulls you toward the ground is that all objects with mass, like our Earth, actually bend and curve the fabric of the universe, called space-time. In 1915, Albert Einstein figured out the answer when he published his theory of general relativity. How does curved space-time cause gravity? Gravity then provides a description of the dynamic interaction between matter and spacetime. The curvature of spacetime influences the motion of massive bodies within it in turn, as massive bodies move in spacetime, the curvature changes and the geometry of spacetime is in constant evolution.

Curved space embedding