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The following diagram illustrates the positions and relationship between the lines of solstices, equinoxes, and apsides of Earth's elliptical orbit. The six Earth images are positions along the orbital ellipse, which are sequentially the perihelion (periapsis—nearest point to the Sun) on anywhere from January 2 to January 5, the point of ...
An elliptical orbit is depicted in the top-right quadrant of this diagram, where the gravitational potential well of the central mass shows potential energy, and the kinetic energy of the orbital speed is shown in red. The height of the kinetic energy decreases as the orbiting body's speed decreases and distance increases according to Kepler's ...
For comparison, Earth's Moon is even less elliptical, with a flattening of less than 1/825, while Jupiter is visibly oblate at about 1/15 and one of Saturn's triaxial moons, Telesto, is highly flattened, with f between 1/3 and 1/2 (meaning that the polar diameter is between 50% and 67% of the equatorial.
Earth on Tuesday made its closest approach to the sun, an annual celestial event that happens to occur at the start of the new year. The planet follows an elliptical orbit around the sun, rather ...
The Earth's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical (its eccentricity varies). When the orbit is more elongated, there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and in the amount of solar radiation, at different times in the year.
The exact time of the equinox varies from year to year due to leap years and the Earth's elliptical-shaped orbit around the sun. ... the first day of spring because of the position of the Earth's ...
Earth's rotational velocity also varies in a phenomenon known as length-of-day variation. [172] Earth's annual orbit is elliptical rather than circular, and its closest approach to the Sun is called perihelion. In modern times, Earth's perihelion occurs around 3 January, and its aphelion around 4 July.
where is the semi-latus rectum, ε is the eccentricity of the ellipse, r is the distance from the Sun to the planet, and θ is the angle to the planet's current position from its closest approach, as seen from the Sun.