GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Detailed explanation-1: -According to Kepler’s first law of planetary orbits, the path of the planets about the Sun is elliptical in shape, with the Sun located at one of the two foci of the ellipse.

Detailed explanation-2: -The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci. A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time. The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

Detailed explanation-3: -Orbits are eliptical because of Newtons Law of Gravity (bodies attract each other in proportion to their mass and inversly proportional to the square of the distance between them). All worked out by Kepler some years ago. A circular orbit is a special (and very unlikely) case of an eliptical orbit.

Detailed explanation-4: -The path of the planets about the sun is elliptical in shape, with the center of the sun being located at one focus. (The Law of Ellipses) An imaginary line drawn from the center of the sun to the center of the planet will sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time.