Rotational Brownian motion (astronomy) of supermassive black holes appear to be randomly aligned with respect to their host galaxies. Rotational Brownian motion (astronomy) In astronomy, rotational Brownian motion is the random walk in orientation of a binary star's orbital plane, induced by gravitational perturbations from passing stars. Consider a binary that consists of two massive objects (stars, black holes etc.) and that is embedded in a stellar system containing a large number of stars. Let formula_1 and formula_2 be the masses of the two components of the binary whose total mass is formula_3. A field star that approaches the binary with impact parameter formula_4
Brownian motion consideration the velocity of the Brownian particle, "U", which depends on the collisions that tend to accelerate and decelerate it. The larger "U" is, the greater will be the collisions that will retard it so that the velocity of a Brownian particle can never increase without limit. Could such a process occur, it would be tantamount to a perpetual motion of the second type. And since equipartition of energy applies, the kinetic energy of the Brownian particle, formula_30, will be equal, on the average, to the kinetic energy of the surrounding fluid particle, formula_31. In 1906 Smoluchowski published a one-dimensional