Kepler's Laws & the Solar System

Kepler's 1st Law says this about the orbits of planets around any star—

• they are elliptical.

• they are perfect circles.

• they are always perfect polygons (square, pentagon, hexagon, etc.,)

• they are parabolic.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

When it comes to planetary orbits, the star a planet orbits is always…

• at the exact center of the circular orbit.

• at one focus of the elliptical orbit.

• at the geometric center of the orbit's perfect geometric shape.

• where all of the diagonals of the orbit's shape cross.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

If the Sun is at one focus of the Earth's orbit, what is at the other focus of its orbit?

• empty space

• the Moon

• Jupiter

• the asteroid belt

A circular orbit would have an eccentricity value of…

• 1

• 0

• ∞

  (Infinity)

• 0.5

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

The orbit of Venus has an eccentricity of 0.007. The orbit of Mercury has an eccentricity of 0.206. Which planet has a more flattened elliptical orbit?

• Mercury

• Venus

• Eccentricity doesn't determine the shape of an orbit

Earth has a less eccentric orbit than Mars does. This means that the Earth's orbit…

• is more circular than Mars's orbit.

• is more elliptical than Mars's orbit.

• has a greater time period than Mars.

• has more captured moons than Mars.

The blue area swept out by Saturn in its orbit is three times the pink area. The time it takes Saturn to sweep out the blue area is…

• three times the time to sweep out the pink area.

• one third the time to sweep out the pink area.

• the same as the time to sweep out the pink area.

• nine times the time to sweep out the pink area.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

The Earth sweeps out the blue area in two months. If the pink area is twice as big as the blue area, the Earth sweep out the pink area in…

• four months

• two months

• one month

• half a month

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

Area 1 (pink) for a planet is half the size of Area 2 (blue). If time 1 for the planet is 2 years, then time 2 is…

• 1 year

• 4 years

• 2 years

• three months

  (1/4 a year)

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

The image shows the Earth in its orbit at the beginning of each month. What do you know about all of the gray areas in the image?

• They all have equal areas to each other.

• Their sum is greater than the sum of all the white areas.

• They all represent different amounts of time.

• Every gray area is a little bigger than the area for the previous month.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1