Chapter 9
Planetary Motion
Some of the greatest developments in the history of astronomy were due to the theoretical
intuition of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German who went to Prague to become an
assistant to another scientist known as Brahe who at the time was working on details
about the solar system.
Brahe's Data and Kepler
Kepler and Brahe did not get along well. Brahe apparently mistrusted
Kepler, fearing that his bright young assistant might eclipse him as the
premiere astonomer of his day. He therefore let Kepler see only part of
his voluminous data.
He set Kepler the task of understanding the orbit of the planet Mars,
which was particularly troublesome. It is believed that part of the
motivation for giving the Mars problem to Kepler was that it was
difficult, and Brahe hoped it would occupy Kepler while Brahe worked on his theory of
the Solar System. In a supreme irony, it was precisely the Martian data that allowed
Kepler to formulate the correct laws of planetary motion, thus eventually achieving a
place in the development of astronomy far surpassing that of Brahe.
Kepler and the Elliptical Orbits
Unlike Brahe, Kepler believed firmly in the Copernican system. For over 2000 years, two
scientists – Aristotle and Ptolemy – had convinced everyone that the entire universe was
centered on the earth and all objects and planets rotated around the earth. Then, in the
16th century a new idea was proposed by the Polish astronomer Nicolai Copernicus
(1473-1543).
In a book called On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (that was published as
Copernicus lay on his deathbed), Copernicus proposed that the Sun, not the Earth, was
the center of the Solar System. Such a model is called a heliocentric system. The ordering
of the planets known to Copernicus in this new system is still used as the order of the
planets in modern day astronomy with Mercury being closest to the sun although at that
time only six planets had been discovered (Mercury to Saturn). In this new ordering the
Earth was just another planet (the third outward from the Sun), and the Moon was in orbit
around the Earth, not the Sun. He described the stars as distant objects that do not revolve
around the Sun. Instead, the Earth is assumed to rotate once in 24 hours, causing the stars
to appear to revolve around the Earth in the opposite direction.
In retrospect, the reason that the orbit of Mars was particularly difficult was that
Copernicus had correctly placed the Sun at the center of the Solar System, but had erred
in assuming the orbits of the planets to be circles. Thus, in the Copernican theory
epicycles were still required to explain the details of planetary motion.
It fell to Kepler to provide the final piece of the puzzle: after a long struggle, in which he
tried mightily to avoid his eventual conclusion, Kepler was forced finally to the
realization that the orbits of the planets were not the
circles demanded by Aristotle and assumed implicitly
by Copernicus, but were instead the "flattened circles"
that geometers call ellipses (see adjacent figure; the
planetary orbits are only slightly elliptical and are not
as flattened as in this example.)
The irony noted above lies in the realization that the difficulties with the Martian orbit
derive precisely from the fact that the orbit of Mars was the most elliptical of the planets
for which Brahe had extensive data. Thus Brahe had unwittingly given Kepler the very
part of his data that would allow Kepler to eventually formulate the correct theory of the
Solar System and thereby to banish Brahe's own theory!
Some Properties of Ellipses
Since the orbits of the planets are ellipses, let us review a few basic properties of ellipses.
1. For an ellipse there are two points called foci (singular: focus) such that the sum of the
distances to the two foci from any point on the ellipse is a constant. In terms of the
diagram shown below, with "x" marking the location of the foci, we have the equation.
a + b = constant
for all points on the ellipse.
2. The amount of "flattening" of the ellipse is termed the eccentricity. Thus, in the
following figure the ellipses become more eccentric from left to right. A circle may be
viewed as a special case of an ellipse with zero eccentricity, while as the ellipse becomes
more flattened the eccentricity approaches one. Thus, all ellipses have eccentricities lying
between zero and one.
The orbits of the planets are ellipses but the eccentricities are so small for most of the
planets that they look circular at first glance. For most of the planets one must measure
the geometry carefully to determine that they are not circles, but ellipses of small
eccentricity. Pluto and Mercury are exceptions: their orbits are sufficiently eccentric that
they can be seen by inspection to not be circles.
3. The long axis of the ellipse is called the major axis, while the short axis is called the
minor axis (adjacent figure). Half of the major axis is termed a semimajor axis. The
length of a semimajor axis is often termed the size of
the ellipse. It can be shown that the average separation
of a planet from the Sun as it goes around its elliptical
orbit is equal to the length of the semimajor axis.
Thus, by the "radius" of a planet's orbit one usually
means the length of the semimajor axis.
The Laws of Planetary Motion
Kepler obtained Brahe's data after his death despite the attempts by Brahe's family to
keep the data from him in the hope of monetary gain. There is some evidence that Kepler
obtained the data by less than legal means; it is fortunate for the development of modern
astronomy that he was successful. Utilizing the voluminous and precise data of Brahe,
Kepler was eventually able to build on the realization that the orbits of the planets were
ellipses to formulate his Three Laws of Planetary Motion.
Kepler's First Law
The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus of the
ellipse.
Kepler's First Law is illustrated in the image shown above. The Sun is not at the centre of
the ellipse, but is instead at one focus (generally there is nothing at the other focus of the
ellipse). The planet then follows the ellipse in its orbit, which means that the Earth-Sun
distance is constantly changing as the planet goes around its orbit. For purpose of
illustration we have shown the orbit as rather eccentric; remember that the actual orbits
are much less eccentric than this.
Kepler's Second Law
The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times
as the planet travels around the ellipse.
Kepler's second law is illustrated in the preceding figure. The line joining the Sun and
planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times, so the planet moves faster when it is nearer
the Sun. Thus, a planet executes elliptical motion with constantly changing angular speed
as it moves about its orbit. The point of nearest approach of the planet to the Sun is
termed perihelion; the point of greatest separation is termed aphelion. Hence, by
Kepler's second law, the planet moves fastest when it is near perihelion and slowest when
it is near aphelion.
Kepler's Third Law
The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods for two planets is
equal to the ratio of the cubes of their semimajor axes
where T is the time it takes for a planet to revolve around the sun and R represents the
length of the semimajor axis of its orbit. The subscripts “1” and “2” distinguish quantities
for planet 1 and 2 respectively. The periods for the two planets are assumed to be in the
same time units and the lengths of the semimajor axes for the two planets are assumed to
be in the same distance units.
Kepler's Third Law implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly
with the radius of its orbit. Mercury, the innermost planet therefore takes only 88 days to
orbit the Sun but the outermost planet (Pluto) requires 248 years to do the same.
Calculations Using Kepler's Third Law
A convenient unit of measurement for periods is in Earth years – time it takes for the
earth to rotate the sun; approx. 365 days. For the distances, a convenient unit of
measurement is the average separation of the Earth from the Sun, which is termed an
astronomical unit and is abbreviated as AU. 1 AU is the length of the semimajor axis of
the earth’s orbit which is the radius of its orbit. If these units are used in Kepler's 3rd Law
to get the T and R for the various other planets i.e. using earth as planet 2, the
denominators in the equation above are numerically equal to one and the equation may be
rewritten in the simple form;
T12 = R13
This means that;
T1 = R13/2 and R1 = T12/3
As an example of using Kepler's 3rd Law, let us calculate the “radius” of the orbit of Mars
(that is, the length of the semimajor axis of the orbit) from the orbital period. The time for
Mars to orbit the Sun is observed to be 1.88 Earth years. Thus, by Kepler's 3rd Law, the
length of the semimajor axis for the Martian orbit is;
Rmars = Tmars2/3 = 1.882/3 = 1.52 AU
which is exactly the measured average distance of Mars from the Sun.
As a second example, let us calculate the orbital period for Pluto given that its observed
average separation from the Sun is 39.44 astronomical units. From Kepler's 3rd Law
Tpluto = Rpluto3/2 = 39.443/2 = 248 years
which is the observed orbital period for the planet Pluto.
Exercise
Work out the times taken (in years) by all known planets to rotate the sun using the
known average distances of their orbits below.
Revolution time (earth
Planet Average Distance (au)
years)
Mercury .39
Venus .72
Earth 1.00
Mars 1.52
Jupiter 5.20
Saturn 9.54
Uranus 19.18
Neptune 30.06
Pluto 39.44