Overview
A barycentric velocity is a velocity of one body relative to the center of mass of a system of bodies. A relative velocity is the velocity of one body with respect to another. Relative escape velocities exist only in systems with two bodies. For systems of two bodies the term "escape velocity" is ambiguous, but it is usually intended to mean the barycentric escape velocity of the less massive body. In gravitational fields "escape velocity" refers to the escape velocity of zero mass test particles relative to the barycenter of the masses generating the field.
The phenomenon of escape velocity is a consequence of conservation of energy. For an object with a given total energy, which is moving subject to conservative forces (such as a static gravity field) it is only possible for the object to reach combinations of places and speeds which have that total energy; and places which have a higher potential energy than this cannot be reached at all.
For a given gravitational potential energy at a given position, the escape velocity is the minimum speed an object without propulsion needs, to be able to "escape" from the gravity (i.e. so that gravity will never manage to pull it back). For the sake of simplicity, unless stated otherwise, we will assume that the scenario we are dealing with is that an object is attempting to escape from a uniform spherical planet by moving straight away (along a radial line away from the center of the planet), and that the only significant force acting on the moving object is the planet's gravity.
Escape velocity is actually a speed (not a velocity) because it does not specify a direction: no matter what the direction of travel is, the object can escape the gravitational field (though its path may intersect the planet). The simplest way of deriving the formula for escape velocity is to use conservation of energy. Imagine that a spaceship of mass m is at a distance r from the center of mass of the planet, whose mass is M. Its initial speed is equal to its escape velocity, . At its final state, it will be an infinite distance away from the planet, and its speed will be negligibly small and assumed to be 0. Kinetic energy K and gravitational potential energy Ug are the only types of energy that we will deal with, so by the conservation of energy,
Kƒ = 0 because final velocity is zero, and Ugƒ = 0 because its final distance is infinity, so
Defined a little more formally, "escape velocity" is the initial speed required to go from an initial point in a gravitational potential field to infinity with a residual velocity of zero, with all speeds and velocities measured with respect to the field. Additionally, the escape velocity at a point in space is equal to the speed that an object would have if it started at rest from an infinite distance and was pulled by gravity to that point. In common usage, the initial point is on the surface of a planet or moon. On the surface of the Earth, the escape velocity is about 11.2 kilometers per second (~6.96 mi/s), which is approximately 34 times the speed of sound (Mach 34) and several times the muzzle velocity of a rifle bullet (up to 1.7 km/s). However, at 9,000 km altitude in "space", it is slightly less than 7.1 km/s.
The escape velocity relative to the surface of a rotating body depends on direction in which the escaping body travels. For example, as the Earth's rotational velocity is 465 m/s at the equator, a rocket launched tangentially from the Earth's equator to the east requires an initial velocity of about 10.735 km/s relative to Earth to escape whereas a rocket launched tangentially from the Earth's equator to the west requires an initial velocity of about 11.665 km/s relative to Earth. The surface velocity decreases with the cosine of the geographic latitude, so space launch facilities are often located as close to the equator as feasible, e.g. the American Cape Canaveral (latitude 28°28' N) and the French Guiana Space Centre (latitude 5°14' N).
The barycentric escape velocity is independent of the mass of the escaping object. It does not matter if the mass is 1 kg or 1,000 kg, what differs is the amount of energy required. For an object of mass the energy required to escape the Earth's gravitational field is GMm / r, a function of the object's mass (where r is the radius of the Earth, G is the gravitational constant, and M is the mass of the Earth, M=5.9736×1024 kg).
For a mass equal to a Saturn V rocket, the escape velocity relative to the launch pad is 8 nanometers per year faster than the escape velocity relative to the mutual center of mass. When the mass reaches the Andromeda galaxy the earth will have recoiled a third of a mile.
Read more about this topic: Escape Velocity