Does Earth have an elliptical path around the sun?

Answer 1

Yes and no. Early models of the motions of the stars and the sun assumed that the Earth was at the center with everything going around it because, after all, that's the way it looks to us.

But the math didn't work out, and nothing the early astronomers tried could make the math work out. Finally Nicolas Copernicus, a Polish monk, tried figuring out that perhaps the Sun was in the middle, with the planets going in circles around the Sun. This was an improvement because it explained the retrograde motion of the planets better than the geocentric model did.

But the math for this didn't work out perfectly, either. Finally Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, demonstrated that the math DID work if he assumed that the planets were traveling in ellipses.

Copernicus used only circles, a special case of ellipses. He did not work with the general ellipse.

Answer 2

This is a result of the law of gravitation.

At a very specific speed, a planet would move around the Sun in a circle, maintaining a constant distance from the Sun.

If the speed of the planet is slightly less than the speed required for a circle, it doesn't have enough momentum, and will approach the Sun. As it does so, however, its speed and momentum will increase - enough to get away from the Sun again, after half an orbit.

This is the general idea; the exact calculation of the orbit requires some advanced math.

Answer 3

yes

yes

Yes, comets and asteroids usually follow elliptical orbit.

Answer 4

The planets in our solar system travel in slightly eliptical orbits, revolving around the sun.

Answer 5

No, that was done by Johannes Kepler.

Answer 6

An ellipses.

Answer 7

An elliptical pattern:

Answer 8

Yes!