our solar system
Saturn
the force of attraction between any two objects.
gravity
What is always at one focus of every planet's orbit?
the sun
the spinning of Earth on its axis, the imaginary line that runs from the north pole to the south pole.
rotation
groups of stars that form a pattern.
constellations
Larger meteors that survive atmospheric entry and reach the surface are known as
meteorites
Which law states that the orbits of the planets around the sun are ellipses, with the sun located at one focus.
Law #1: Law of Ellipses
a geometric shape that looks like a flattened circle.
an ellipse
Earth rotates ____________
west to east; counterclockwise
In ancient times, the _______________ proposed that Earth was the center of the universe, and all celestial objects orbited around it.
geocentric model
also known as “dirty snowballs” are icy bodies that originate in the outer regions of the solar system.
comets
defined as the set of all points where the sum of the distances to two fixed points (foci) is constant.
ellipse
measures how much an ellipse deviates from being a circle.
eccentricity
Deflection of winds and water
Coriolis effect
Kepler discovered that planets move in ellipses, not circles, fundamentally changing our understanding of the cosmos.
Johannes Kepler
a spherical shell of icy bodies surrounding the solar system, the source of long-period comets.
The Oort Cloud
Which law states that there is a mathematical relationship between a planet’s mean distance from the sun and the time it takes the planet to revolve around the sun (orbital period).
Law #3: Law of Planetary Periods
Eccentricity values range from
0-1
The motion of a body that travels around another body in space is called
revolution
discovered four of Jupiter's largest moons, demonstrating that not all celestial bodies orbit Earth.
Galileo Galilei
is a cloud of gas and dust released from the comet as it heats up.
coma
Which law states that an imaginary line joining a planet to the sun will sweep over equal areas in equal periods of time.
Law #2: Law of Equal Areas
If the eccentricity is “0”, the orbit is a
perfect circle
What causes Earth's seasons?
revolution
The heliocentric model was proposed by whom in the 16th century
Nicolaus Copernicus