Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
The foundational empirical laws governing orbital motion, stating that orbits are ellipses, equal areas are swept in equal times, and the square of the period is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis (). These laws form the basis for analyzing perturbations.
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The statement of the theorem
Let be the position vector of a body in an orbit defined by the gravitational parameter . The orbit must satisfy:\n1. **Ellipticity:** , where is the semi-latus rectum, is the eccentricity, and is the true anomaly.\n2. **Conservation of Angular Momentum (Second Law):** , where is the specific angular momentum, implying .\n3. **Period-Semi-major Axis Relation:** , where is the semi-major axis and is the orbital period.