A Rosetta orbit is a complex type of

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

. In

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

, a Rosetta orbit occurs when there is a

periastron An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any elli ...

shift during each orbital cycle. A retrograde Newtonian shift can occur when the central mass is extended rather than a point gravitational source, resulting in a non-closed orbit. A prograde relativistic shift happens because of relativistic effects from a massive gravitational source. In barred spiral galaxies with a compact, lens-shaped bar (in contrast with a box-shaped bar), the morphology of the bar is supported by stars following rosette-shaped orbits that rotate with the bar. An object approaching a black hole with an intermediate velocity (not slow enough to spiral into the hole and not fast enough to escape) enters a complex orbit pattern, bounded by a near and far distance to the hole and tracing an oscillating pattern known as a

hypotrochoid In geometry, a hypotrochoid is a roulette traced by a point attached to a circle of radius rolling around the inside of a fixed circle of radius , where the point is a distance from the center of the interior circle. The parametric equations f ...

. In 2020, scientists using observations made by the European Southern Observatory's

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m acro ...

revealed for the first time that star S2 orbits in this pattern around

Sagittarius A* Sagittarius A* ( ), abbreviated Sgr A* ( ), is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. It is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic, ...

. In

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...

, the Rosetta orbit is a solution for

spherically symmetric In geometry, circular symmetry is a type of continuous symmetry for a planar object that can be rotated by any arbitrary angle and map onto itself. Rotational circular symmetry is isomorphic with the circle group in the complex plane, or the ...

(except 1/r) potentials.

References

External links

Hubble telescope multimedia presentation on Black Holes
Orbits {{astronomy-stub

See also

References

External links