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From: jfc@athena.mit.edu (John F Carr)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,sci.misc,sci.space
Subject: Re: greenhouse effect / solar power satellites
Message-ID: <4605@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 14 Apr 88 00:15:47 GMT
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In article <226@aplcomm.UUCP> jwm@stdc.jhuapl.edu.UUCP (James W. Meritt) writes:
: Not being much of an astrophysicist, could someone comment on putting
: dust in an orbit between the earth and the sun?  The position I have in
: mind is an orbit closer to the sun at the point where the earth's
: gravity balances the suns to the extent that it could orbit at the
: (slower) speed that the earth does.  It sounds to me like it would orbit
: properly, but I have no idea how far from the earth this point is, nor
: does it seem overly stable.  

The point of which you are thinking, one of the Lagrange points, is
not stable.  An object placed there will drift away.



   John Carr           "No one wants to make a terrible choice
   jfc@athena.mit.edu   On the price of being free"           -- Neil Peart