Question What does it mean when the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1?(1 point) Responses its orbit is close to another planet's. its orbit is close to another planet's. its orbit is a highly elongated ellipsis. its orbit is a highly elongated ellipsis. Its orbit is not closed around a fixed point Its orbit is not closed around a fixed point Its orbit crosses over the orbit of another planet.
its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse.
When the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it means that its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse. Its orbit is not closed around a fixed point and it deviates significantly from being a perfect circle.
When the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it means that its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse. To understand this concept further, let me explain what orbital eccentricity is.
Orbital eccentricity is a measure of how elongated an object's orbit is compared to a perfect circle. It is represented by a value between 0 and 1, where 0 represents a perfectly circular orbit, and 1 represents a highly elongated and eccentric orbit.
To calculate the orbital eccentricity of a planet, you need to know its semimajor axis (the average distance from the planet to its parent star) and its semiminor axis (half of the shortest diameter of the elliptical orbit). The formula to calculate eccentricity, denoted as "e," is:
e = (a - b) / a
where "a" represents the semimajor axis, and "b" represents the semiminor axis.
Now, when the eccentricity is close to 1, it means that the difference between the semimajor and semiminor axes is significant. This results in an orbit that is highly elongated, rather than being close to a circular shape. In other words, the planet's path around its star deviates greatly from a circular path.
It is important to note that an eccentricity of 1 does not necessarily mean that the planet's orbit is close to another planet's or that it crosses over another planet's orbit. These concepts are unrelated to eccentricity and refer to different orbital characteristics.
So, to summarize, when the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it means that its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse, indicating a significant deviation from a circular orbit.