When were elliptical orbits discovered?

Answer 1

1602 AD by Johannes Kepler.

Kepler gave us the orbital law of the Earth orbiting the Sun in an ellipse.

The Law states , that Earth sweeps equal arcs of the orbit in equal times.

The Sun is at one of the foci of the ellipse, not the centre. The other foci might be termed as a 'blind' focus; nothing there.

It has subsequently been found that the planets, Earth included, do not orbit in a closed ellipse, but in an Ellipsoid. An ellipsoid is the track were the planet 'overshoots' its starting point on its previous orbit. Al the planets and the natural satellites (moons) do this in there respective ellipsoidal orbits.

Answer 2

That has never been proven, and it's impossible to prove. It's "only a theory".

However, in the 16th Century, Johannes Kepler showed that IF that's what's happening, then it

would accurately explain all the motions of the sun, moon, and planets that we actually do see in

the sky.

Since that model so successfully explained what we see ... and a century later, Newton showed

that if his ideas about gravity were correct, then planets have to travel elliptical paths around

the sun ... Kepler's model was accepted as the best theory. But it can't be proven.

And not only that! If you find something seen in the sky that Kepler's model doesn't explain, or

if you come up with an explanation that fits the observations with better accuracy, then Kepler's

theory will be thrown out, and yours will become the accepted one.

That's how Science works.

Answer 3

It was Johannes Kepler in the early 1600s who discovered that the planets move in elliptical orbits. It took well over 1500 years to discover this because the planets' orbits are only slightly elliptical and circular orbits were good enough for accurate predictions until more accurate measurements were made at the end of the 1500s by Tycho Brahe.

Answer 4

Around 1602 Kepler proved that planetary orbits were elliptical.

Answer 5

Kepler a++++

Answer 6

Johannes Kepler 1618