Friday, December 16, 2011

When calculating a detailed ephemeris for Kupier Belt Objects, does a physicist need to account for distance?

Say you track an object way out there, beyond the orbit of Neptune, for several months. Hypothetically, when the object is at opposition for early plots, and in conjunction for later plots. Does that extra 16 (or so) light minutes of distance for the observer make a difference in figuring out the objects' orbital elements?

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