Month: July 2025

NEWTONIAN REFINEMENT OF KEPLER’S LAWS – Modifications to Kepler’s laws based on Newton’s laws of motion and gravity.

KEPLER’S CONSTANT – A value that remains the same for all planets orbiting the same central body.

TRUE ANOMALY – The actual angular position of a planet in its orbit relative to the Sun.

MEAN ANOMALY – The fraction of an orbit’s period that has elapsed since perihelion, measured in degrees.

KEPLER’S EQUATION – A mathematical formula used to describe a planet’s position along its elliptical orbit.

ORBITAL RESONANCE – When two orbiting bodies exert periodic gravitational influence on each other.

TYCHO BRAHE – The astronomer whose precise observational data helped Kepler develop his laws.

JOHANNES KEPLER – The astronomer who formulated the three laws of planetary motion.

SYNODIC PERIOD – The time between successive identical configurations of a planet, as seen from Earth.

SIDEREAL PERIOD – The actual time it takes for a planet to complete one full orbit relative to distant stars.