What happens to the speed of a planets as you get closer to the sun?

Answer 1

Yes. That's one of Kepler's three laws of planetary motion, which he figured out

from studying Tycho's lifetime of watching the planets and keeping notes.

About 100 years after Kepler, Newton wrote his theory of universal gravitation,

and showed that if gravity is true, then the planets mustbehave that way.

Answer 2

The earth moves in an elliptical orbit, meaning it is in an oval shape. When the earth is closer to the sun, it travels faster than when it is far away because the gravity of the sun slingshots it forward. I believe this discovery was brought into being by Isaac Newton.

Answer 3

Any object in any closed orbit always moves slower when it's farther away

from the central body, and faster when it's nearer to the central body.

Comets do it, the Earth does it, the Moon does it, asteroids do it, the

International Space Station does it, the Apollo command modules and the

Space Shuttles did it, and astronauts on space-walks do it.

The reason is: That's the way gravity works. If you take Newton's formula for

gravitational force, and you have enough geometry and calculus to play around

with the formula and MASH it into different shapes and forms, then all of Kepler's

laws of planetary motion fall right out of the math. The statement about faster,

slower, nearer, and farther is Kepler's third law.

Answer 4

Gravity is an inverse-square force, which means that as a planet goes closer to the Sun it experiences a stronger gravitational pull. That makes it accelerate towards the Sun more, but as it is already moving quickly around the Sun the result is that it goes more quickly.

An alternative explanation is that when the planet moves closer to the Sun it gives up potential energy from the gravitational field which is converted to kinetic energy. With more kinetic energy it moves faster.

Take your pick.

Answer 5

A planet's speed increases as it gets closer to the sun due to the greater gravitational pull from the sun. This results in the planet moving faster along its orbit.

Answer 6

Halley's Comet travel at 157,838 mph which is 254,016 km/h.

Answer 7

As the planet gets closer it moves faster then slows down as its leaving the vicinity of the sun

Answer 8

It speeds up at it gets closer to the sun, then slows down again as it leaves.

Answer 9

Because of the effect of the Sun's gravitational pull.

Answer 10

The compared orbital speed of planets increases as they get closer to the Sun, due to the greater gravitational pull.