celestial mechanics

American  

noun

1. the branch of astronomy that deals with the application of the laws of dynamics and Newton's law of gravitation to the motions of heavenly bodies.

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celestial mechanics British  

noun

1. the study of the motion of celestial bodies under the influence of gravitational fields

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celestial mechanics Scientific  

1. The science of the motion of celestial bodies under the influence of gravitational forces.

2. See more at Kepler's laws of planetary motion relativity

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Etymology

Origin of celestial mechanics

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Think again of Uranus and its off-kilter spin—likely due to a chance planet-walloping impact, not a subtle inevitability of celestial mechanics.

From Scientific American • Mar. 4, 2019

Venus continues to hang out throughout November and into the holidays, but Saturn — thanks to celestial mechanics — seems to duck into the sun’s glare after Thanksgiving.

From Washington Post • Oct. 29, 2016

Nash transformed economics, Nasar wrote, just as “Mendel’s ideas of genetic transmission, Darwin’s model of natural selection, and Newton’s celestial mechanics reshaped biology and physics in their day.”

From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2015

After all, we once thought celestial mechanics needed a divine watchmaker, as did the whole of biology.

From New York Times • Jan. 8, 2015

From our present stand-point, the paper in which this calculation is contained has considerable interest because of its assumptions as to celestial mechanics.

From A History of Science — Volume 1 by Williams, Edward Huntington