Tug of war (astronomy)

Law of universal gravitation

According to Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation

F = G ⋅ m 1 ⋅ m 2 d 2

In this equation

F is the force of attraction G is the gravitational constant m₁ and m₂ are the masses of two bodies d is the distance between the two bodies

The two main attraction forces on a satellite are the attraction of the Sun and the satellite's primary (the planet the satellite orbits). Therefore, the two forces are

F p = G ⋅ m ⋅ M p d p 2 F s = G ⋅ m ⋅ M s d s 2

where the subscripts p and s represent the primary and the sun respectively, and m is the mass of the satellite.

The ratio of the two is

F p F s = M p ⋅ d s 2 M s ⋅ d p 2

Example

Callisto is a satellite of Jupiter. The parameters in the equation are

Callisto–Jupiter distance (d_p) is 1.883 · 10⁶ km.

Mass of Jupiter (M_p) is 1.9 · 10²⁷ kg

Jupiter–Sun distance (i.e. mean distance of Callisto from the Sun, d_s) is 778.3 · 10⁶ km.

The solar mass (M_s) is 1.989 · 10³⁰ kg

F p F s = 1.9 ⋅ 10 27 ⋅ ( 778.3 ) 2 1.989 ⋅ 10 30 ⋅ ( 1.883 ) 2 ≈ 163

The table of planets

Asimov lists tug-of-war ratio for 32 satellites (then known in 1963) of the Solar System. The list below shows one example from each planet.

The special case of the Moon

Unlike other satellites of the solar system, the solar attraction on the Moon is more than that of its primary. According to Asimov, the Moon is a planet moving around the Sun in careful step with the Earth.