Orbits of planets around sun

How do planets orbit the Sun?

The planets orbit the Sun in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Sun's north pole, and the planets' orbits all are aligned to what astronomers call the ecliptic plane. Who Was Johannes Kepler? Johannes Kepler was born on Dec. 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Württemberg, which is now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

What planets are in the Solar System?

As you zoom out, the solar system's outer planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – come into view. The date slider allows you to move forwards or backwards by a few months to see the motion of the planets along their orbits. The top panel shows where the planets appear in the night sky from the Earth.

Which planets are closest to the Sun?

The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are all relatively close together while the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are much more spread out. In the time it takes the Earth to complete one orbit, the planets closer to the Sun (Mercury and Venus) orbit at least once.

Which planet has the most circular orbits around the Sun?

For a perfectly circular orbit, the eccentricity is 0; with increasing elongation of the orbit’s shape, the eccentricity increases toward a value of 1, the eccentricity of a parabola. Of the eight major planets, Venus and Neptune have the most circular orbits around the Sun, with eccentricities of 0.007 and 0.009, respectively.

How long does it take a planet to orbit the Sun?

Mercury, the innermost planet, takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun. Earth takes 365 days, while distant Saturn requires 10,759 days to do the same. Kepler didn’t know about gravity, which is responsible for holding the planets in their orbits around the Sun, when he came up with his three laws.

Which planet has the greatest inclination around the Sun?

Another defining attribute of an object’s orbit around the Sun is its inclination, which is the angle that it makes with the plane of Earth’s orbit—the ecliptic plane. Again, of the planets, Mercury’s has the greatest inclination, its orbit lying at 7° to the ecliptic; Pluto’s orbit, by comparison, is much more steeply inclined, at 17.1°.