The paths are "ellipses".
They look like slightly "flattened" circles.
They all appear to have a circular or oval shape.
path
The curved path is called the orbit. Each planet has its own orbit. Some are faster and some are slower. They are caused by the gravity of the planet and the sun
orbit
A path the shape of a circal
It was Johannes Kepler in 1618.
An orbit.
Because they each have a certain path that they follow, and the paths do not intersect.
Inertia is trying to keep each planet moving in a straight line, and the sun's gravity is trying to pull each planet into the sun. The resultant of those two vectors is the orbital path each planet follows.
The path is called an "orbit", and it has the shape of an ellipse, the Sun being at one focus of the ellipse.
Actually,as the planet Revolve and Rotate the path is an orbit....^_^
These are known as elliptical orbits. The shape they produce is an ellipsis.
Each planet moves in its own elliptical orbit round the Sun, then and now.