What are the Lagrange points?

From my weekly live video chat, I answered a question about the points of gravitational balance called the Lagrange Points.

More info on the science: http://www.physics.montana.edu/faculty/cornish/lagrange.html

More info on WMAP: http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov

More info on JWST: http://jwst.nasa.gov

More info on the L5 Society: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L5_Society

Images courtesy those above sites.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• bad
• astronomy
• phil
• plait
• lagrange
• points
• gravity
• solar
• system
• wmap
• jwst
• l5
• society

[ojedajuanpablo]

3:29 "oh, where's my SQUISHY earth BALL? oh well, its too far."

[Ivin3690]

ur username should be badasstronomer

[msjessypp]

some really good stuff here

[cavhoki]

thanks you did a very good job

[REA00002]

You explained in 6 minutes and with no experience required what took Wikipedia 12 pages and a bachelors in Astronomy and theoretical physics highly recommended to explain.

[Momentimum]

What's your take on the theory to move matter around a vessel in order to sprint through space/time. I hear it's shockingly possible.

[Loewenhertz3]

@b0gdanB These points are stable, because there gravity force and centrifugal force are equal.

[b0gdanB]

i don't get why L2 and L3 are stable, both earth and sun's gravity pull in the same direction, so it's just like orbiting a bigger object

[chrisconwaypeters]

highly doubt that man will abandon earth for lagrangian colonization

[Klendathue]

I remember reading a series of science fiction short stories about a space relay station in the L4 Lagrange point. The space station was called Venus Equilateral. It would relay radio signals between Earth and the human colonies on Venus and Mars. Of course there was an emergency in every story that the people on the space station needed to solve. The one thing I remember was that the station's only restaurant kept losing their cloth napkins and table cloths to the engineers.

[1337paladin]

unstable equilibrium