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Kepler's Third Law for Elliptical Orbits definitions Flashcards

Kepler's Third Law for Elliptical Orbits definitions
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  • Elliptical Orbits
    Paths of celestial objects that are oval-shaped, with varying distances from the central body.
  • Semi-Major Axis
    Half the longest diameter of an ellipse, crucial for calculating orbital periods in elliptical orbits.
  • Aphelion Distance
    The farthest point in an orbit from the central body, used to calculate the semi-major axis.
  • Eccentricity
    A measure of how much an orbit deviates from being circular, affecting the shape of the orbit.
  • Orbital Period
    The time taken for a celestial object to complete one full orbit around another object.
  • Gravitational Constant
    A fundamental constant (G) used in the calculation of gravitational forces and orbital dynamics.
  • Mass of Central Body
    The mass of the object being orbited, crucial for determining the orbital period using Kepler's laws.
  • Circular Orbits
    A special case of elliptical orbits where the path is a perfect circle, with constant distance from the center.
  • Perihelion Distance
    The closest point in an orbit to the central body, not used in the given example calculation.
  • Kepler's Third Law
    A law relating the square of the orbital period to the cube of the semi-major axis of an orbit.