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Celestial mechanics is the branch of astrophysics that deals with the motions of celestial objects. The field applies principles of physics, historically classical mechanics, to astronomical objects such as stars and planets to produce ephemeris data. Orbital mechanics (astrodynamics) is a subfield which focuses on the orbits of artificial satellites. Although modern analytic celestial mechanics starts 400 years ago with Isaac Newton, prior studies addressing the problem of planetary positions are known going back perhaps 3,000 or more years, as early as the Babylonian astronomers. The only known supporter of Aristarchus was Seleucus of Seleucia, a Babylonian astronomer who is said to have proved heliocentrism through reasoning in the 2nd century BC. This may have involved the phenomenon of tides,[1] which he correctly theorized to be caused by attraction to the Moon and notes that the height of the tides depends on the Moon's position relative to the Sun.[2] Alternatively, he may have determined the constants of a geometric model for the heliocentric theory and developed methods to compute planetary positions using this model, possibly using early trigonometric methods that were available in his time, much like Copernicus.[3] Some have interpreted the planetary models developed by Aryabhata (476-550), an Indian astronomer,[4][5][6] and Albumasar (787-886), a Persian astronomer, to be heliocentric models.[7] In the 9th century AD, the Persian physicist and astronomer, Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa ibn Shakir, hypothesized that the heavenly bodies and celestial spheres are subject to the same laws of physics as Earth, unlike the ancients who believed that the celestial spheres followed their own set of physical laws different from that of Earth.[8] He also proposed that there is a force of attraction between heavenly bodies,[9] vaguely foreshadowing the law of gravity.[10]
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