planetary orbit

Around the sun

A planetary orbit is the curved path a planet follows as it travels around a star, held in place by gravitational attraction.

Orbits are typically elliptical rather than perfectly circular.

The term extends to any celestial body's path around another: The moon's planetary orbit takes about 27 days.

In casual use, planetary orbit sometimes describes anything that revolves around a central point.

Related

revolution · celestial · heavenly bodies · trajectory · slingshot maneuver · escape velocity · aphelion · perihelion · solar system · Kepler · comet · asteroid · ecliptic · spinning · weightless · void · cosmos · Neptune

Categories
Opposites
trajectory type

planetary orbitstraight line

Undeviated continuous path

straight path · linear path · ballistic trajectory

gravitational binding

planetary orbitfree fall

Unimpeded gravitational descent

motion pattern

planetary orbitlinear motion

Displacement along a line

random walk

Family

planet, planetary, planets, planetarium, planetoid, interplanetary, orbit, orbits, orbital

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Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Everyday, not technical · Rated G