Question

Why is Newton's form of Kepler's third law so useful to astronomers?

Answer 1

Newton's form of Kepler's third law is so useful to astronomers due to the following reasons: -

1. Kepler's rules are helpful because they explain how a celestial body behaves when it is close to a large body.
2. These laws define the solar orbits of planets, asteroids, and comets.
3. These principles can be used to explain the motion of binary stars around one another as well as how stars orbit a black hole, therefore they are not just applicable to our solar system.
4. Newton deduced that in the planet-sun system, the planet does not revolve around a stationary sun since every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
5. Therefore, Newton hypothesized that the planet and the sun both revolved around the planet-mass system's common centre of mass. By doing so, he altered Kepler's third law.