Question

1. Earth is located at one of the Moon's orbit. True / False.

Answer 1

Answer:

1. Earth is located at one of the Moon's orbit. True / False.

False.

2. According to Kepler's second law, Jupiter will be traveling most slowly around the Sun when at _________.

According to Kepler's second law, Jupiter will be traveling most slowly around the Sun when at its aphelion.

3. Earth orbits in the shape of a/an around the Sun.

Earth orbits in the shape of an ellipse around the Sun

4. The mathematical form of Kepler's third law measures the period in years and the __________ in astronomical units (AU).

The mathematical form of Kepler's third law measures the period in years and the distance in astronomical units (AU).

5. According to Kepler's second law, Pluto will be traveling fastest around the Sun when at __________.

According to Kepler's second law, Pluto will be traveling fastest around the Sun when at its perihelion.

6. The extent to which Mars' orbit differs from a perfect circle is called its _________.

The extent to which Mars' orbit differs from a perfect circle is called its eccentricity.

Explanation:

Earth is located at one of the Moon's orbit.

The mass of the Earth is greater than the mass of the Moon, therefore the moon will be attracted to the Earth for the gravitational force. Hence, it is the Moon the one that orbits the Earth and not the other way around.

Kepler's laws establish that:

• All the planets revolve around the Sun in an ellipse orbit, with the Sun in one of the focus (Kepler's first law).

• A planet describes equal areas in equal times (Kepler's second law).

• The square of the period of a planet will be proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit (Kepler's third law).

           $T^{2} = a^{3}$

       Where T is the period of revolution and a is the semi-major axis.

According to Kepler's second law, Jupiter will be traveling slower around the Sun when at its aphelion.

Since planets orbit around the Sun in an ellipse, with the Sun in one of the focus, in some moments of their orbit they will be closer to the Sun. It is known as perihelion when the planet is in the shorter distance to the Sun in its orbit, and aphelion when it is farther away from the Sun.

According with Kepler's second law to complete the same area in the same time, Jupiter slow down when it is at its aphelion. That is due to the force of gravity, since it is inversely proportional to the square of the distance:

$F = G\frac{m1m2}{r^{2}}$

Where G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects and r is the distance between them.

So when the distance increases the force decreases, and the orbital speed slows down.

According to Kepler's second law, Pluto will be traveling fastest around the Sun when at its perihelion.

In the case of Pluto it will speed up when it is at its perihelion in accordance with Kepler's second law and since the gravitational pull will be greater because it is in a shorter distance from the Sun.

The mathematical form of Kepler's third law measures the period in years and the distance in astronomical units (AU).

One (1) Astronomical unit is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun (150000000 Km), where the distance is described by the semi-major axis in Kepler's third law.

The extent to which Mars' orbit differs from a perfect circle is called its eccentricity.

The eccentricity is the measurement of how pronounce a conic section is. An eccentricity equal to zero represents a circle.