What does it mean when the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1?(1 point)
Responses
its orbit is close to another planet's.
its orbit is a highly elongated ellipsis.
Its orbit crosses over the orbit of another planet.
Its orbit is not closed around a fixed point
its orbit is a highly elongated ellipsis.
When the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it means that its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse.
The correct answer is: its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse.
To understand why, let's first clarify what orbital eccentricity is. Orbital eccentricity refers to the shape of an object's orbit around another object, such as a planet orbiting a star. It is a measure of how much the orbit deviates from a perfect circle.
The eccentricity of an orbit is defined by a value between 0 and 1. When the eccentricity is close to 0, the orbit is nearly circular. As the eccentricity increases towards 1, the orbit becomes more elongated, resembling an ellipse.
When the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it means that the planet's orbit is highly elongated. In other words, the shape of the orbit is significantly stretched out compared to a circular orbit. This can result in the planet being closer to the star at certain points in its orbit (perihelion) and farther away at other points (aphelion).
So, in summary, when the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it means that its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse.