pressure. Ideally, energy absorbed would equal blackbody energy emitted at any given point, resulting in no net force. However, the Yarkovsky effect is the phenomenon that, because absorption and radiation of heat are not instantaneous, objects which are not terminally locked absorb sunlight energy on surfaces exposed to the Sun, but those surfaces do not re-emit much of that energy until after the object has rotated, so that the emission is parallel to the object's orbit. This results in a very small acceleration parallel to the orbital path, yet one which can be significant for small objects over millions of years. The Poynting-Robertson effect is a force opposing the object's velocity caused by asymmetric incidence of light, i.e., aberration of light. For an object with prograde rotation, these two effects will apply opposing, but generally unequal, forces. Gravitational radiation Gravitational radiation is another mechanism of orbital decay. It is negligible for orbits of planets and planetary satellites (when considering their orbital motion on time scales of centuries, decades, and less), but is noticeable for systems of compact objects, as seen in observations of neutron star orbits. All orbiting bodies radiate gravitational energy, hence no orbit is infinitely stable. Electromagnetic drag Satellites using an electrodynamic tether, moving through the Earth's magnetic field, create drag force that could eventually deorbit the satellite. Stellar collision A stellar collision is the coming together of two binary stars when they lose energy and approach each other. Several things can cause the loss of energy including tidal forces, mass transfer, and gravitational radiation. The stars describe the path of a spiral as they approach each other. This sometimes results in a merger of the two stars or the creation of a black hole. In the latter case, the last several revolutions of the stars around each other take only a few seconds. Mass concentration While not a direct cause of orbital decay, uneven mass distributions (known as mascons) of the body being orbited can perturb orbits over time, and extreme distributions can cause orbits to be highly unstable. The resulting unstable orbit can mutate into an orbit where one of the direct causes of orbital decay can take place. References Effects of gravitation Orbits Black holes