Orbit of Mars

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/orbit-of-mars

1. How long is Orbit of Mars?
2. What is the orbital eccentricity?
3. What is the perihelion distance?
4. Why does Mars travel in a wobbly, elliptical path instead of a perfect circle?
5. How far is Mars from the Sun at its closest and farthest points?

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. How long is Orbit of Mars?9.55 AU
2. What is the orbital eccentricity?0.0934
3. What is the perihelion distance?1.381 AU
4. Why does Mars travel in a wobbly, elliptical path instead of a perfect circle?Mars’s orbit has an eccentricity of 0.0934, which makes it more oval than a circle.
5. How far is Mars from the Sun at its closest and farthest points?At its closest (perihelion) Mars is 1.381 AU from the Sun, and at its farthest (aphelion) it is 1.666 AU away.

Semimajor Axis: Half of the longest diameter of an ellipse, representing the average distance from the center to the edge.
Orbital Eccentricity: A dimensionless parameter that describes how much an orbit deviates from being perfectly circular.
Orbital Period: The time it takes for a celestial body to complete one full orbit around another.
Hohmann Transfer Orbit: An elliptical orbit used to transfer between two circular orbits in the same plane, typically around the Sun.