Yoshihide Kozai

Yoshihide Kozai is a Japanese astronomer best known for his work in celestial mechanics and astrodynamics, particularly in the study of orbits of celestial bodies. One of his significant contributions is the Kozai mechanism, which describes how the orbit of a small body can be affected by the gravitational influence of a more massive body, leading to oscillations in the eccentricity and inclination of the small body's orbit over long periods of time.