A1 Dynamical Astronomy Edited by Foxit Reader 1

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Quick facts #2: The two-body problem

Introduction
The most straightforward orbit calculations oc- m 1 v1
cur when the central body is much more massive r2 r1
than the orbiting body, as is the case for the orbits r
of man-made satellites around the Earth. We as- m2
sumed that this is also the case for planetary orbits
about the Sun – a good approximation, especially v2
for the minor planets. However it is not appro-
priate in a binary star system where the masses of
Figure 1: Masses m 1 and m 2 in circular orbits
the two stars orbiting each other are similar. Even
(m 1 > m 2 ).
for planetary motion there is a small but important
correction to be made once the orbital motion of
the Sun is taken into account. The good news is r is therefore the distance between the stars. It
that we can apply all our old results, with suitable is constant in our example, but would vary if the
modifications. orbits were elliptical. The two stars must have
the same angular speed ω (otherwise one mass
There are two ways to approach the problem.
would catch up the other, and the gravitational
The first, covered in the notes, is to realise that in
force would not be directed towards the centre of
general both bodies perform elliptical orbits about
the circles). The orbital speeds of the two masses
a fixed, common, centre of mass. For example,
are therefore
the mass m 1 moves as if in motion about a fixed
mass of magnitude m
2 = m 32 /(m 1 + m 2 )2 . All v1 = ωr1 ,
our ‘one-body’ results can now be applied, using v2 = ωr2 .
m
2 fixed at the focus, in place of a moving m 2 .
Sometimes however, it is useful to think in terms The gravitational force between the stars depends
of the relative motion of the two masses rather than on the inverse-square of their separation, r , and
their individual motions about the centre of mass. supplies the centripetal force that keeps them mov-
ing in circles of radii r1 and r2 respectively. So
Gm 1 m 2 m 1 v12
Relative motion = = m 1 ω2r1 (1)
r2 r1
m 2 v22
The general elliptical analysis is just beyond the = = m 2 ω2r2 .
(2)
scope of this course (though not by much). Instead r2
we will analyse the case of two stars of similar The equality of the two right-hand terms gives
mass performing circular orbits about a common r1 m2
centre (Figure 1). = ,
r2 m1
which is just the condition that the common centre
Let the stars have masses m 1 and m 2 , at distances of the circles is the centre of mass of the system.
r1 and r2 from their common centre. We will de- Using Equations 1 and 2 we can also write
fine the radius vector of the system as
Gm 1 Gm 2
r = r1 + r2 . ω2 = 2 = 2 . (3)
r r2 r r1
2 A1X Dynamical Astronomy - two-body problem

Also, since a2 and eccentricity e (which is the same as the

m1 eccentricities of the two real orbits). The radius
r = r1 + r2 = r1 + r1 , vector, r, tells us the relative separation of the two
m2
masses. Here are some results (derived using the
we get above rule) for the two-body system. Note their
m 2r
r1 = . similarity to the one-body results derived earlier
m1 + m2 in the course, but remember the definitions of M,
Combining this with Equation 3 we get µ, v, a and r in terms of the parameters of the two
stars:
G(m 1 + m 2 )
ω2 = .
r3 1 G Mµ
Energy: E = µv 2 −
We can write this in terms of the period of the orbit, 2 r
Angular momentum: L = µrv sin θ
T = 2π/ω, as
Speed: v 2 = G M(2/r − 1/a)
4π 2r 3
T2 = , 4π 2 a 3
G(m 1 + m 2 ) Period: T2 = .
GM
i.e.,
GW
r3 G(m 1 + m 2 ) 2011
= .
T2 4π 2

This is Kepler’s third law for circular orbits.

It is always true, even when one mass is much
greater than the other, but is especially useful when
m 1  m 2 . If m 1  m 2 , then r2  r and the
equation reduces to the ‘one-body’ version derived
earlier in the course.
In fact all the earlier results can be applied to the
two-body problem with the following trick (you
will be shown the proof in honours astronomy!).
We can define

M = m1 + m2
m 1m 2
µ=
m1 + m2
v = v1 + v2 .

The quantity µ is called the reduced mass of the

system. Note that if m 1  m 2 then M  m 1 and
µ  m2.
In general, the two-body problem can be
treated as an equivalent one-body problem in
which the reduced mass µ is orbiting about a
fixed mass M at a distance r .
The reduced mass will describe an imagined
ellipse about M with semi-major axis a = a1 +