EARTHS ORBIT NOTES Pg.9 ELLIPSE ORBITAL VELOCITY AXIAL PRECESSION “In your own words” ORBITAL VELOCITY AXIAL PRECESSION VELOCITY KEPLERS 1ST LAW obliquity Orbital velocity– understanding helps scientists to keep track of Earth approaching asteroids as a collison could be devastating because of its high velocity relative to earth. Astronomers search for asteroids and map their orbits. Keplers laws – 3 laws that govern orbits Eccentricity – how close or far the orbits shape is from a circle Axial precession – every 26, 000 years earths wobble completes 1 cycle – this affects the timing of seasons *10 thous yrs from now winter will be from June to Sept when earth is far from the sun—winters will be 2x colder* Orbital plane- space in which a planet orbits (asteroid orbits are more eccentric than planetary orbits) Inclination- (asteroids) how tilted their orbits are KEPLERS 2ND LAW ORBITAL PLANE KEPLERS 3RD LAW