Earth orbits

explicitly, they are a mass which, unlike a moon, orbit around the sun, and due to the pull and force of their self-gravity are of a sufficient mass that they form an almost rounded spherical shape however they are not of a sufficient size to gravitationally clear the neighbourhood around their orbit. (Williams, M) In comparison the definition of a planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union in 2006 is “a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient…

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun in our solar system right in front of Venus. Mercury was named after a Roman god but is also called Hermes in Greek mythology who is the messenger of the gods. This relates to Mercury because it orbits the sun faster than all the other planets. Mercury is an extremely interesting planet in our solar system. Ancient people who lived in Mesopotamia(current day Iraq) called the Sumerians, first saw the planet Mercury in 3rd millennium B.C. Many old…

The orbit of Jupiter is elliptical instead of circular, like that of any other planet. At its closest approach, Jupiter comes within about 4.95 astronomical units of the Sun. As we already know, an astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. At its most distant point, Jupiter is approximately 5.46 AU from the Sun. Jupiter’s semi-major axis, which is an average from the farthest distance from the sun and the closest distance from the sun, is about 5.2 AU. Jupiter is…

zero, which is very cold compared to here on Earth. Pluto is so far away from Earth that scientists know very little about what the mysterious planet it is like. Pluto’s orbit is 5,913,520,000 km from the Sun.…

dangers of space debris. If an effort to remove debris does not take place soon, a "snow-ball effect" where satellite fragmentations cause further collisions leading to a dramatic increase in space debris \cite{ion}. As of 2007, nearly half of all Earth satellites are debris \cite{old}. %TODO finish intro %TODO where is space debris a problem? % History %TODO go more in-depth and stretch out each event % Early fragmentations % 2007 Fengyun anti-satellite test % 2009 collision % 2012…

1. How does the force of the Earth’s gravity 250 miles above the surface of the Earth compare to the force of gravity at the surface of the Earth? Is this surprising? The force of the Earth’s gravity 250 miles above has less pressure and less gravity because gravity pulls everything to the center of the Earth, so the farther the distance; the less gravity. The force of the Earth’s gravity 250 miles above the surface has about 90 percent of what the force of gravity is on Earth’s surface.…

In this exploration the trajectory of a spacecraft from Earth to Mars will be calculated. The aim is to determine the geometrical shape of the trajectory and what type of curve it is. Finding the interplanetary trajectory for a spacecraft is a real life problem, especially the one between Mars and Earth. It is currently solved by sophisticated computers but I am interested in learning how it is done. To do this Newton’s law of Gravitation has to be taken into account. It states that any two…

the planets orbit in the universe. The geocentric models such as the Greek Geocentric model portrays the earth in the center of the universe. The heliocentric models such as the Tycho Heliocentric Model displays the sun being more the center of the universe. Greek Geocentric Model In many ancient civilizations such as the Ancient Greeks, the geocentric model was the predominant theory. An observation of this particular model was the stars, sun, moon, and planets circled around the earth once a…

solar system, twice as massive as all the other planets comined. It is a gas giant planet and therefore lacks a earth like surface. Due to the giant atmosphere of gas, Jupiter rotates faster than any other planet. Jupiter’s day is only about ten hours long. Jupiter takes twelve Earth years to make one revolution around the sun so, one revolution around the sun is equal to twelve years on Earth. Primarily it is made up of Hydrogen and Helium similar to the sun. In addition, the core temperature…

The planet Earth orbits in such a way that it can cause an ice age. In order for this type of ice age to occur there would have to be many different things that must occur all at once. There is nothing the human civilization could possibly do about the orbit either to prevent the ice age. Milutin Milankovitch discovered the three orbital parameters that can cause an ice age if the conditions were all to align. Milankovitch’s three different orbital parameters include Earth’s eccentricity, axial…