Celestial Mechanics

This paper presents a kinematic framework for celestial mechanics that determines the dynamics, masses, gravity and angular momentum of celestial bodies without invoking Newton's gravitational constant G. Three core physical postulates are advanced. First, space is not empty but is filled by a hydrodynamic plenum, a viscous and compressible quantum foam of density ρ₀ that mediates all gravitational and inertial phenomena. Second, mass is bipartite: every body possesses an inert nucleonic mass Mqm (responsible for resistance to motion) and an interactive cohesive mass Meff (responsible for coupling to the plenum); the two are logically distinct quantities whose interaction is what is conventionally measured as gravity and inertia. Third, the dynamical observable that characterises every vortex in the plenum is the Plenum Influence Parameter Φ = v²r, a kinematic quantity directly extractable from orbital data without recourse to gravitational mass. Within this framework, gravity is the adhesive inward pressure gradient of the surrounding plenum and inertia is the cohesive resistance of the body's bipartite mass to acceleration through the same medium.