TheJeeronian t1_je2u1zk wrote
Reply to comment by remarkablemayonaise in ELI5 How do scientists know probes (Like Voyager I) aren't going to get swept up in the orbit of another celestial body? by remorsefulDownfall
Conic sections are just an approximation. The fairly minimal tidal gradient makes stitched together conical sections a decent approximation - when you're near Earth you follow a conic around Earth and your path around the sun otherwise mimics that of Earth.
The Earth orbits the solar system's barycenter, which approximates fairly nicely to the sun but if we ignore the sun and patch our conics around the barycenter it works even better.
The method is aptly named "patched conics".
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