Activities
Conic sections - ellipse - orbits of the planets
Each planet follows a path that is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the foci.
Compare the lengths of the major
and minor axes. The eccentricities are:
| Mercury | 0.206 |
| Venus | 0.007 |
| Earth | 0.017 |
| Mars | 0.093 |
| Jupiter | 0.048 |
| Saturn | 0.056 |
| Uranus | 0.046 |
| Neptune | 0.009 |
| Pluto | 0.252 |
Compare the maximum and minimum distances of each planet from the Sun.
Check your results against Walter Fendt's applet which also gives the eccentricity for Halley's Comet as 0.967.