Perturbation is a term used in astronomy to describe alterations to an object's orbit caused by gravitational interactions with bodies external to the system formed by the object and it parent body (e.g. its star for a planet/dwarf planet/minor planet/comet, or its planet for a satellite). For example, the orbits of comets are often perturbed, particularly by the gravitational fields of the gas giants. In April 1996, Jupiter's gravitational influence caused the period of Comet Hale-Bopp's orbit to decrease from 4206 to 2380 years.¹ Planets also perturb the orbits of other planets, a fact which lead to the discovery of Neptune as a result of its perturbations of the orbit of Uranus.

References

1. ^ Don Yeomans (1997-04-10). "Comet Hale-Bopp Orbit and Ephemeris Information". JPL/NASA. Retrieved on 2008-10-23.

This astronomy related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.