GEOL 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Orbital Eccentricity, Orbital Inclination, Ecliptic
24 Dec 2016
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Ecliptic: orbits lie in or near a single plane - the ecliptic. the plane of earth"s orbit the ecliptic appears as a line through the background constellations of the zodiac. Orbital inclination: angle between the plane of a planet"s orbit and the ecliptic. Orbital eccentricity: measures the extent to which the ellipse departs from being a circle. Astronomical unit: earth"s average distance from the sun (149. 6 million km or 92. 9 million miles) is the astronomical unit (au). Prograde orbits: looking down on the planets" north poles, the planets appear to orbit in a counterclockwise or prograde direction. Anything moving in the opposite direction is retrograde. The sun: the primary body of the solar system. Star: celestial object composed primarily of hydrogen and helium sufficiently massive to ignite prolonged nuclear fusion reactions in its core. Sunlight: radiant energy of the electro-magnetic spectrum, mostly visible light with some infrared and ultraviolet.
