An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The gravitational interaction between a relatively massive body and a field of much less massive bodies through which the massive body travels. As a result, the moving body loses → momentum and → kinetic energy. An example of dynamical friction is the sinking of massive stars to the center of a → star cluster, a process called → mass segregation. Dynamical friction plays an important role in → stellar dynamics. It was first quantified by Chandrasekhar (1943).

See also: → dynamical; → friction.