What is meant by orbital period of a planet?
The time taken for a planet to complete one orbit around the sun.
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What is the relationship between a planet's distance from the sun and its orbital period?
The further a planet is from the sun, the longer its orbital period.
This is an example of Kepler's third law (T2 ∝ R3).
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What is an elliptical orbit?
An elliptical orbit is a path that a planet follows around the sun, which is shaped like an ellipse.
An ellipse is like a stretched circle.
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What is Kepler's first law?
All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.
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What is Kepler's second law?
A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
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What is Kepler's third law?
The period of orbit (T) is related to the mean distance between the Sun and the planet (r) by:
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What is the relationship between a planet's distance from the sun and its speed?
A planet moves faster when it is closer to the sun and slower when it is further away.
This is using Kepler's second law.
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