Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion

Name: Evelin Lopez

Overview
In this activity you will investigate Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion using the planets in the
Solar System. You will also calculate orbital information about a comet.

To complete this assignment for grading:

• File → Make a Copy → Rename the file ‘YourLastName – KeplerLab’
• Upload to the file to the correct Canvas assignment dropbox

Objectives
After completing this activity you will be able to:
• Describe how eccentricity influences the shape of an orbit.
• Investigate the orbital parameters of planets in the Solar System.
• Calculate the orbital periods of bodies in the Solar System.

Key Terms and Definitions

Using the word bank below, match the correct term with the correct definition. Use the dropdown menu to
choose the correct term.

• Aphelion
• Astronomical Unit (AU)
• Eccentricity (e)
• Kepler’s First Law
• Kepler’s Second Law
• Kepler’s Third Law
• Perihelion
• Semi-major axis (a)
● Kepler's 1st Law – the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.
● Kepler's 2nd Law – a line joining the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal
intervals of time → equal area = equal time.
● Kepler's 3rd Law – The square of the orbital period of a planet (P) in years is directly proportional to
the cube of the semimajor axis (a) in AU of its orbit → P2 ∝ a3 or
● eccentricity (e) – measure of the amount by which an elliptical orbit deviates from a circle (e=0 is a
perfect circle).
● semi-major axis (a) – half of the major-axis length of an ellipse or elliptical orbit. Often given in
units of AU or km. Approximately the same as the distance from the Sun for planets in the Solar
System.
● perihelion – the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the Sun.
● aphelion – the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is furthest from the Sun.
● aphelion – mean distance between the Sun and the Earth. 1 AU = 1.5x108km
Procedures
For this activity you will be using the Planetary Orbits simulator (click the link to find it) from the University
of Nebraska – Lincoln. The simulator shows an animation of a planet orbiting the Sun. You can adjust the
parameters of the orbit yourself or use pre-set parameters for the planets in the Solar System. There are
also various tools to help you understand Kepler’s laws.

If the applet is not loading, please check that your Flash settings are set to “Allow”. In Chrome, you do this
by clicking on the lock icon on your web browser’s address bar.

Note: Allowing Flash will vary depending on your web browser. If you are using a browser that is
not Chrome, ask Google how to allow flash for your browser.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Part 1. Kepler’s First Law - The orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.

Applet setup:
● Click the “start animation” button and then click on the tab labeled “Kepler’s 1st Law” in the
lower left of the window.
● Click on “show empty focus,” “show center,” and “show semimajor axis.”
● You can adjust the orbit’s eccentricity by sliding the “eccentricity” bar on the right side of the
window.

1. Describe what happens to the shape of the ellipse when eccentricity gets larger.
When eccentricity gets larger

2. Describe what happens when the eccentricity gets smaller.

Smaller eccentricity =more circular orbit

3. Change the value of eccentricity until the orbit becomes circular in shape.
What is the eccentricity of a circular orbit?
C
 Now, let’s examine the orbits of the planets.
● Be sure that the empty focus, center, and semi major axis boxes are still turned on and then click
“set parameters for” in the upper-right corner to select each planet in the Solar System. You
must click “OK” to update the parameters.
● Complete the eccentricity and semi-major axis columns in Table 1 below.
● You will need to click each planet one at a time to view their orbits. Note that the orbital periods
will be calculated later in the lab activity. (Hint: It might be a good idea to put this info into a
spreadsheet LIKE THIS ONE ….make a copy of it and save to your Drive)

Table 1. Planet eccentricities and semi-major axes

Planet e = Eccentricity a = Semi-major Axis
(AU)

Mercury 0.067 0.387

Venus 0.007 0.723

Earth 0.017 1,00

Mars 0.093 1.52

Jupiter 0.048 5.20

Saturn 0.056 9.54

Uranus 0.047 19.2

Neptune 0.009 30.1

4. Which planet has the most circular orbit?

venus

5. Which planet has the most elliptical orbit?

Mars=0.093

During Kepler’s lifetime in the early 17th-century, only Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
were known planets. Tycho Brahe told Kepler that the data for the position of Mars were the most
difficult to match using a circular orbit. Based on this information Kepler selected the orbit of Mars as the
starting point to developing his first law of planetary motion.

6. Briefly discuss why the orbit of Mars was so difficult to reconcile with a circular orbit?
Mars has an orbit more elliptical (0.093); than any other known planets.

Before proceeding to the next part, click the “reset” button near the top right corner of the app to
 refresh the simulation display.
____________________________________________________________________________________

Part 2. Kepler’s Second Law - A line joining the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas
during equal intervals of time.
Applet setup:
● Click “Kepler’s 2nd Law.” Notice that you can control how long a sweep lasts by adjusting the
fractional sweep bar. The default value is a sweep for 1/16 of the orbital period.
● Click “start animation” and observe how the speed of the planet changes.

7. Describe how the orbital speed of the planet changes when it is near aphelion (which is the farthest
point from the Sun).
At ephelion, planet moves the slowest. Moving from aphelion to perihelion, the orbital
decreases fromhighest to lowest speed.

8. Describe how the speed changes when it is near perihelion (which is the closest point to the Sun).
Just befire perhilion the planet is gaining speed
At perihelion, the planet is moving at its fastest speed
And just after phelion, the planet begins to slow down.

As you observe the planet approaching perihelion click the sweep button and the simulation will show you
the area swept out by the line connecting the Sun to the planet (1/16 of the orbital period). Repeat this
procedure when the planet approaches aphelion. Now sweep a random area as the third one.

9. Are these three areas the same or is one larger than others?
All 3 areas are equal in sizes and different in speed.

10. How does the shape of the area at perihelion

compare to the shape of the area at aphelion?
(Example using this cartoon orbit, compare
the bases of the triangle (in red) and the legs
connecting to the Sun (in blue). Now do this
with the figure in the simulator!)

At perhilion, the triangle appeared smaller than at aphelion, but they are the same area.
Which means, at perihelion its moving the fastest and at aphelion its moving th slowest.

Before proceeding to the next part, click the “reset” button near the top right corner of the app to refresh
the simulation display.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Part 3. Kepler’s Third Law - The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly
proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

The third law states that the amount of time it takes a planet to orbit the Sun is related to the planet’s
average distance from the Sun. Mathematically, it can be approximated as

(3/2)
→ 𝑃 =𝑎
Where P is the orbital period of the object in years and “a” is the semi-major axis of the object in AU.
Using Equation 1 and the semi-major axis values from Table 1, calculate the orbital period of each planet
in Table 2. (Hint: Did you pick up on the first hint? If not, simply use the Table 2 data in your graph, which
should be calculated for you as you complete Table 1).

Table 2. Orbital Period of Planets

Planet P = Orbital Period
(years)

Mercury 0.24

Venus 0.61

Earth 1.00

Mars 1.87

Jupiter 11.86

Saturn 29.47

Uranus 84.13

Neptune 165.14

Part 4: Comet Orbits (click here for more info)

Planets aren’t the only Solar System objects that follow
Kepler’s Laws. Comets do too! Using what you have
learned from Parts 1 and 3, let’s explore the orbits of two
comets!

The first comet is 1P/Halley, aka Halley’s Comet.

The first confirmed recording of this comet was by
Chinese astronomers in 240 BCE. It has an orbital
eccentricity of 0.967 and a semi-major axis of
17.94 AU
 NASA The second comet is 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It was
visited by the ESA spacecraft Rosetta and Philae (Rosetta’s
lander) became the first spacecraft to land on a comet’s surface
in November 2014!

It has an orbital eccentricity of 0.632 and a semi-major axis of 3.51

AU.

11. Comparing the eccentricities of the comet, which comet has a higher eccentricity?
Describe what the shape of that comet’s orbit would look like.
Halley has the higher eccentricity

12. Using Equation 1 and the semi-major axis values given above, calculate the orbital
periods of the two comets:

Comet e= a = semi-major axis P = Orbital Period (years)

Eccentricity (AU)

1P/Halley 0.967 17.94 75.99

67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 0.632 3.5 6.55

13. Halley’s Comet was last at perihelion in 1986. As a ‘naked-eye’ comet, when at perihelion it
can be seen without the use of a telescope or any other instrument (which is awesome!).
Using your answer from Question 12, what year do we expect the next opportunity to see
Halley’s comet with our unaided eye?

1986+76=2062

To complete this assignment for grading:

• File → Make a Copy → Rename the file ‘YourLastName – KeplerLab’
• Upload to the file to the correct Canvas assignment dropbox
• Contemplate how old you will be when Halley’s Comet returns!