Astrophysics (Index)About

radial velocity

(RV, radial motion, line-of-sight velocity, LOS velocity)
(component of velocity toward or away from observer)

Radial velocity (RV) is the component of velocity of a body on a line between the body and the observer, i.e., the movement toward or away from the observer. (The line between observer and body is a radius of the sphere surrounding the observer at the distance of the body.) The radial velocity of an astronomical object can be determined by measuring the Doppler shift of known spectral lines (yielding the spectral radial velocity), a measurement that can be carried out at any distance as long as the source is sufficiently bright. This offers a relatively easy clue to the peculiar velocity of the object, and within the Milky Way offers clues to the orbits of stars around the galactic center, and to distance (kinematic distance).

Radial velocity of stars can also be used to identify the presence of unseen binary-star companions or extra-solar planets, the radial velocity method (aka RV method) of exoplanet detection. The RV method is helpful for detecting planets with small (a day or few days) or medium (1-2 AU) orbits, but transits reveal more of the smaller orbits. Using the RV method requires HRS, which, in turn, requires a degree of brightness (apparent magnitude of +12 or brighter) and currently measures down to about one meter/second precision. (1/10 meter/second would be required to detect Earth from another star.) Observatories with instruments designed to do this are sometimes referred to as RV observatories (radial velocity observatories).

Radial velocity represents one component of a body's velocity relative to the observer, covering one of the three spatial dimensions. A two-dimensional velocity covering the other two dimensions (at right angles to the line of sight) is termed transverse velocity or tangential velocity. For nearby stars, proper motion offers a clue to the transverse velocity, which can be pinned down if the distance is known, e.g., using parallax. Transverse velocity does have a relativistic effect on Doppler shift (stemming from time dilation), which can significantly affect RV measurements if the magnitude of the transverse velocity is far greater than the radial velocity.

The term velocimetry is sometimes used for measurement of velocity, and radial velocimetry for the RV measurement.


(astrophysics)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_velocity
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/radial_velocity#English
https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/r/Radial+velocity
https://cseligman.com/text/stars/radialvelocity.htm
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003A%26A...401.1185L/abstract

Referenced by pages:
51 Pegasi b (51 Peg b)
55 Cancri e (55 Cnc e)
active galactic nucleus (AGN)
binary star
blue shift
cadence
CfA digital speedometer
CMB dipole
cosmological redshift
CRIRES
data cube
Doppler shift
double-line spectroscopic binary (SB2)
eclipsing binary (E)
emission line
ESO 3.6m Telescope
EXPRES
extra-solar planet
Extragalactic Distance Database (EDD)
G-CLEF
Gaia
Galactic All-sky Survey (GASS)
galactic archaeology
General Catalogue of Stellar Radial Velocities (GCRV)
gravitational redshift
Great Debate
H3 Survey (H3)
Hale Telescope
HARPS
HARPS-N
HBK
HD 114762
hot Jupiter (HJ)
HRS
Hubble constant (H0)
Hubble expansion
iron (Fe)
K correction
Keck Observatory
Kepler radius
kinematic distance
kinemetry
LB-1
Lick Observatory Calcium Line Survey (LkCl)
line broadening
line tomography
local standard of rest (LSR)
magma ocean
maser
mass function
mass ratio (μ)
mass-radius relation
minimum mass (m sin i)
moving-cluster method
NGC 3201
NIRPS
OH/IR source
Oort constants
PLATO
position-position-velocity space (PPV)
projected semi-major axis
proper motion (PM)
Proxima b
radial velocity method
redshift (z)
rotation curve
Scholz's Star
shell star (sh)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
spectral line
spectral resolution
spectroscopy
SPIRou
stellar kinematics
stellar mass determination
stellar radius determination
stellar rotation
supernova light curve (SN light curve)
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG)
telluric line
Terra Hunting Experiment (THE)
TESS-Keck Survey (TKS)
time dilation
tomography
ultra-fast outflow (UFO)
velocity dispersion (σ)
virial theorem
water-ice planet
WIYN Open Cluster Study (WOCS)

Index