UNIVERSE
SOLAR SYSTEM FORMATION
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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a path the shape of a circle.
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a path the shape of an ellipse.
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a path the shape of a spiral.
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similar-sized orbits.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Kepler’s First Law states that the orbit of each planet around the Sun is an ellipse. The Sun’s center is always at one of the orbital ellipses’ foci. The planet’s orbit is elongated, which means that the planet’s distance from the Sun changes as it travels around its orbit.
Detailed explanation-2: -The orbit of a planet around the Sun (or a satellite around a planet) is not a perfect circle. It is an ellipse-a “flattened” circle. The Sun (or the center of the planet) occupies one focus of the ellipse. A focus is one of the two internal points that help determine the shape of an ellipse.
Detailed explanation-3: -A circle is merely a special case of an ellipse. However, the planets do not quite move in ellipses either. The increased kinetic energy of a planet as its distance from the Sun decreases causes it to behave as though it had a greater mass, which results in the point of the orbit furthest from the Sun precessing.