What are Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion?
Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion state:
- The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun as one focus of the ellipse.
- The planet moves in its orbit at such a velocity that its radius vector sweeps out equal areas in an equal interval of time.
- The orbital period squared is proportional to the mean distance from the Sun cubed.
These laws apply to all the planets including Uranus, Neptune and Pluto,
Planets discovered long after Kepler’s death.
Do Kepler’s laws equally apply to comets and asteroids also?
Yes. According to Kepler’s law comet spends most of its time moving very slowly and bursts into high speed only during its perihelion passage.
