(Bill Bogen) wrote in message . com...
But an object _could_ (very small chance, I admit) be in heliocentric
orbit and yet pass over the Earth at just the right speed to enter a
circular polar orbit at 20310.8 km radius, could it not? Without
having to shed any velocity at all? (I feel like a cross-examining
attorney;"You admit that my client _could_ have been carrying that
plutonium for perfectly innocent reasons?")

No.

Orbits run backwards more or less as well as they run forwards. So if
something is now in a circular orbit at 20310.8 km radius, if time is
reversed it's not going to go flying back out into interplanetary
space - it'll still be in a circular orbit.

With close flybys in 3-body systems you can either eject or capture
something, but that's not the situation you're describing.

-jake