Tuesday 20 May 2008

Elliptical orbits


The orbit of the Earth around the Sun is not a perfect circle. It is slightly oval. We say that it is an ellipse. Therefore the orbit is elliptical.


The Sun is not in the centre. It is slightly to one side at a point called the FOCUS.


All of the planets follow elliptical orbits.


On the mock exam there was a question about an object going around the Sun. Should scientists vote on whether or not it should be a planet? The answer was to wait for more evidence to decide whether it might be something else like a COMET. Note: moons don't directly orbit the Sun: they orbit planets. The orbits of comets are particularly elliptical.

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