Learning outcomes of the course unit:
The student will be able to mathematically rigorously describe various types of trajectories of planets and space probes in the solar system on the basis of physical laws. They will be able to analyze all significant effects affecting the stability of spacecraft orbits. The student will be able to determine and simulate the positions of bodies derived from their ephemeris. The student will gain the most important knowledge about the evolution of planetary systems and their central stars. The student will gain a sufficient general basis about the structure of galaxies and the organization of large-scale structures in space.Course Contents:
• Newton's law of gravitation and Kepler's laws as starting points for the dynamics of gravitationally bound.
• Classification of body trajectories in the spherically symmetric gravitational field of a central mass body.
• The solar system as a gravitationally bound system of the Sun and its planets.
• Basic types of spacecraft trajectories in the Solar System and the importance of gravity-assisted maneuvers.
• Lagrange points in a system of two gravitationally coupled bodies. Significance of Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth system for observations and space research.
• Electromagnetic interactions and their main effects in the space (light pressure, magnetic fields, cosmic plasma, etc.).
• Ephemeris of objects (natural and artificial) and their meaning.
• Calculation and simulation of the motion of artificial satellites in a real (not perfectly spherically symmetrical) gravitational field and under the influence of the most important perturbation influences (light pressure, remnants of the atmosphere).
• Energy sources of stellar energy and strong interactions (pp and CNO cycle of thermonuclear fusion of stars of the main sequence)
• The planets of the solar system, their main characteristics as the reflection of their distance from the Sun and the consequence of the planetary systems formation.
• Physics of interplanetary and interstellar space and cosmic radiation.
• Current knowledge about the structure and properties of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Rotational speeds of stars in spiral galaxies and other indirect signals of dark matter (motion of star clusters, gravitational lenses and large-scale fiber structures).
