All the planets travel around the Sun in the same direction (the opposite that a clock moves or anticlockwise in paths called orbits that are nearly in circles. Actually, these orbits are not round, like a circle, but are slightly squished, into ellipses.
The eccentricity of an orbit tells us how squished these ellipses are. The orbit of Pluto, the outermost planet, is the most elliptical (the most eccentric). Mars, our planetary neighbor, has the orbit most like a circle (the least eccentric).
The planets all travel about the Sun in nearly the same disk, called the ecliptic. Some planets are tilted or inclinedout of this disk more than others. The inclination of Pluto is the largest, followed by Mercury and Venus.
While the planets are orbiting the Sun, each planet also spins on it's own axis. Earth spins once on it's axis every 24 hours, causing us to have day and night every 24 hours at most places on Earth.
Some planets spin much faster than Earth (like Jupiter and Saturn, that spin once about every 10 hours) and some spin much, much slower (like Venus, which spins once every 243 Earth days). Most planets spin in the same way that Earth does (anticlockwise). But some (Venus, Uranus, and Pluto) spin the other way, called retrograde.
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All the planets travel around the Sun in the same direction (the opposite that a clock moves or anticlockwise in paths called orbits that are nearly in circles. Actually, these orbits are not round, like a circle, but are slightly squished, into ellipses.
The eccentricity of an orbit tells us how squished these ellipses are. The orbit of Pluto, the outermost planet, is the most elliptical (the most eccentric). Mars, our planetary neighbor, has the orbit most like a circle (the least eccentric).
The planets all travel about the Sun in nearly the same disk, called the ecliptic. Some planets are tilted or inclinedout of this disk more than others. The inclination of Pluto is the largest, followed by Mercury and Venus.
While the planets are orbiting the Sun, each planet also spins on it's own axis. Earth spins once on it's axis every 24 hours, causing us to have day and night every 24 hours at most places on Earth.
Some planets spin much faster than Earth (like Jupiter and Saturn, that spin once about every 10 hours) and some spin much, much slower (like Venus, which spins once every 243 Earth days). Most planets spin in the same way that Earth does (anticlockwise). But some (Venus, Uranus, and Pluto) spin the other way, called retrograde.
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All the planets travel around the Sun in the same direction (the opposite that a clock moves or anticlockwise in paths called orbits that are nearly in circles. Actually, these orbits are not round, like a circle, but elliptical. The eccentricity of an orbit tells us how squished these ellipses are. The orbit of Pluto, the outermost planet, is the most eccentric. Mars, our planetary neighbor, has the orbit most like a circle.
The planets all travel about the Sun in nearly the same plane, called the ecliptic. Some planets are inclined out of this plane more than others. The inclination of Pluto is the largest, followed by Mercury and Venus.
While the planets are orbiting the Sun, each planet also spins on it's own axis. Earth spins once on it's axis every 24 hours, causing us to have day and night every 24 hours at most places on Earth. Some planets spin much faster than Earth (like Jupiter and Saturn, that spin once about every 10 hours) and some spin much, much slower (like Venus, which spins once every 243 Earth days). Most planets spin in the same way that Earth does (anticlockwise). But some (Venus, Uranus, and Pluto) spin the other way, called retrograde.
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