Earth's orbit

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/earths-orbit

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the mean orbital radius?149.60 million kilometers (1 AU)
2. What is the sidereal orbital period?365.256 days
3. What shape is Earth's orbit around the Sun?Earth's orbit is an ellipse, a stretched circle. The Sun sits at one focus of this ellipse.
4. How far is Earth from the Sun at its closest and farthest points?At perihelion, Earth is about 147.1 million kilometers from the Sun. At aphelion, it is about 152.1 million kilometers away.

Keplerian Ellipse: An elliptical orbit described by Kepler's laws of planetary motion, with one body at a focus.
Eccentricity: A measure of how much an orbit deviates from being a perfect circle.
Barycenter: The common center of mass around which two or more celestial bodies orbit.
Prograde Motion: Orbital or rotational movement in the same direction as the primary body's rotation or the system's overall motion.