Which statement did Kepler’s investigations of the movement of the planets explain?
Responses
The sun is more massive than earth.
The sun is more massive than earth.
Gravity acts on all objects in the universe.
Gravity acts on all objects in the universe.
Jupiter has more moons than earth.
Jupiter has more moons than earth.
Earth is not the center of the universe.
Earth is not the center of the universe.
Earth is not the center of the universe.
Kepler's investigations of the movement of the planets explained that Earth is not the center of the universe.
The statement that Kepler's investigations of the movement of the planets explain is "Earth is not the center of the universe."
To understand this, we need to know about Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Kepler was a German astronomer who observed the movement of planets and formulated three laws to describe their motion. These laws are:
1. The law of ellipses: Kepler discovered that the planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun, with the sun being located at one of the foci of the ellipse. This means that the path of a planet's motion is not a perfect circle centered around the Earth but rather an elongated shape.
2. The law of equal areas: Kepler found that a line connecting a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals. This means that a planet moves faster when it is closer to the sun and slower when it is farther away.
3. The law of harmonies: Kepler discovered a mathematical relationship between the period of a planet's orbit and its distance from the sun. Specifically, the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its semi-major axis (the average distance between the planet and the sun).
Kepler's laws of planetary motion helped to explain and provide a more accurate understanding of how the planets move in our solar system. They provided evidence that the Earth is not the center of the universe, contrary to the geocentric model proposed by earlier astronomers such as Ptolemy. Instead, the sun is at the center of the solar system, and the planets, including Earth, revolve around it in elliptical orbits.