| Abstract: | The aim of this book is to present techniques for the study of motion of solar system objects in highly eccentric orbits. Instead of using the usual anomalies (mean, true, eccentric), the authors define and use a new kind of anomaly, the elliptic anomaly.In this way, it is possible, in a theory using perturbation series expansions, to make the ratio: (accuracy)/(number of needed terms), higher than in the classical techniques. The book consists of six chapters. The first chapter deals with the elliptic anomaly in the two-body problem and the second chapter presents the general technique to construct first-order perturbation theory in elliptic function expansions. The next three chapters deal with applications of the new technique to artificial satellites and asteroids, in highly eccentric orbits. The last chapter describes the basic algorithms of the theory.The tools developed in the book demand the use of computer algebra, which is implemented by means of Mathematica 3.0.The book is well written and the new technique is clearly presented and related to the existing techniques, making it useful to all those who use analytical or semi-analytical methods for the study of highly eccentric motion.
Celestial Mechanics at High Eccentricities, Gordon and Breach Publishers, US$95, GBP 59, EUR 79, ISBN 90-5699-212-0 |
