Lab 3 – Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion

ASTR 1010
Name:
Overview
In this activity you will investigate Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion using the planets in
the Solar System. You will also calculate orbital information about a comet.

Objectives
After completing this activity students will be able to:
• Describe how eccentricity influences the shape of an orbit.
• Investigate the orbital parameters of planets in the Solar System.
• Calculate the orbital periods of bodies in the Solar System.

Definitions
Here are some terms from lecture that we will be using today in lab:
• Kepler’s First Law – the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.
• Kepler’s Second Law – a line joining the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during
equal intervals of time → equal area = equal time.
• Kepler’s Third Law – The square of the orbital period of a planet (P) in years is directly
proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis (a) in AU of its orbit → 𝑃2 = 𝑎3
• Eccentricity (e) - measure of the amount by
which an elliptical orbit deviates from
a circle (e=0 is a perfect circle).
• Semi-major axis (a) - half of
the major-axis length of an
ellipse or elliptical orbit. Often
given in units of AU or km.
Approximately the same as the
distance from the Sun for planets
in the Solar System.
• Perihelion – the point in the orbit of a
planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is
closest to the Sun.
• Aphelion - the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is furthest from
the Sun.
• Astronomical Unit (AU) – mean distance between the Sun and the Earth. 1 AU = 1.5x108 km

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For this activity you will be using the Planetary Orbits simulator from the University of
Nebraska – Lincoln. The simulator shows an animation of a planet orbiting the Sun. You
can adjust the parameters of the orbit yourself or use pre-set parameters for the planets
in the Solar System. There are also various tools to help you understand Kepler’s laws.
The simulator can be found here:
https://astro.unl.edu/naap/pos/animations/kepler.html
If the applet is not loading, please check that your Flash settings are set to “Allow”. In
Chrome, you do this by clicking on the lock icon on your web browser’s address bar.

Note. Allowing Flash will vary depending on your web browser. If you are using a
browser that is not Chrome, ask Google how to allow flash for your browser.

Part 1. Kepler’s First Law

The orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.

Applet setup: Click the “start animation” button and then click on the tab labeled “Kepler’s 1st
Law” in the lower left of the window. Click on “show empty focus,” “show center,” and “show
semimajor axis.” You can adjust the orbit’s eccentricity by sliding the “eccentricity” bar on the
right side of the window.

1. Describe what happens to the shape of the ellipse when eccentricity gets larger.

2. Describe what happens when the eccentricity gets smaller.

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 3. Change the value of eccentricity until the orbit becomes circular in shape. What is the
eccentricity of a circular orbit?

Let’s examine the orbits of the planets. Be sure that the empty focus, center, and semi-major
axis boxes are still turned on and then click “set parameters for” in the upper-right corner to
select each planet in the Solar System. You must click “OK” to update the parameters.
Complete the eccentricity and semi-major axis columns in Table 1 below. You will need to click
each planet one at a time to view their orbits. Note that the orbital periods will be calculated
later in the lab activity. (Hint. It might be a good idea to put this info into an Excel sheet…)
Table 1. Planet eccentricities and semi-major axes
Planet Eccentricity Semi-major Axis (AU)

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

4. Which planet has the most circular orbit?

5. Which planet has the most elliptical orbit?

During Kepler’s lifetime in the early 17th-century, only Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn were known planets. Tycho Brahe told Kepler that the data for the position of Mars
were the most difficult to match using a circular orbit. Based on this information Kepler
selected the orbit of Mars as the starting point to developing his first law of planetary motion.
6. Briefly discuss why the orbit of Mars was so difficult to reconcile with a circular orbit?

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 Before proceeding to the next part, click the “reset” button near the top right corner of the
app to refresh the simulation display.

Part 2. Kepler’s Second Law

A line joining the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of
time.

Applet setup: Click “Kepler’s 2nd Law.” Notice that you can control how long a sweep lasts by
adjusting the fractional sweep bar. The default value is a sweep for 1/16 of the orbital period.
Click “start animation” and observe how the speed of the planet changes.

7. Describe how the orbital speed of the planet changes when it is near aphelion (which is
the farthest point from the Sun).

8. Describe how the speed changes when it is near perihelion (which is the closest point to
the Sun).

As you observe the planet approaching perihelion click the sweep button and the simulation
will show you the area swept out by the line connecting the Sun to the planet (1/16 of the
orbital period). Repeat this procedure when the planet approaches aphelion. Now sweep a
random area as the third one.

9. Are these three areas the same or is one larger than others?

10. How does the shape of the area at perihelion

compare to the shape of the area at aphelion?
(Example using this cartoon orbit, compare
the bases of the triangle (in red) and the legs
connecting to the Sun (in blue). Now do this
with the figure in the simulator!)

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 Before proceeding to the next part, click the “reset” button near the top right corner of the
app to refresh the simulation display.

Part 3. Kepler’s Third Law

The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the
semimajor axis of its orbit.

The third law states that the amount of time it takes a planet to orbit the Sun is related to the
planet’s average distance from the Sun. Mathematically, it can be approximated as

𝑃2 = 𝑎3 (𝐸𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 1)
Where P is the orbital period of the object in years and a is the semi-major axis of the object in
AU.

Using Equation 1 and the semi-major axis values from Table 1, calculate the orbital period of
each planet in Table 2. (Hint. Did you pick up on the first hint?)

Table 2. Orbital Period of Planets

Planet Orbital Period (years)

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

Part 4. Comet Orbits

Planets aren’t the only Solar System objects that follow Kepler’s Laws. Comets do too! Using what you
have learned from Parts 1 and 3, let’s explore the orbits of two comets!

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The first comet is 1P/Halley, aka Halley’s Comet. The first
confirmed recording of this comet was by Chinese
astronomers in 240 BCE. It has an orbital eccentricity of
0.967 and a semi-major axis of 17.94 AU

NASA

The second comet is 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It was visited

by the ESA spacecraft Rosetta and Philae (Rosetta’s lander) became
ESA the first spacecraft to land on a comet’s surface in November 2014!
It has an orbital eccentricity of 0.632 and a semi-major axis of 3.51
AU.

11. Comparing the eccentricities of the comet, which comet has a higher eccentricity?
Describe what the shape of that comet’s orbit would look like.

12. Using Equation 1 and the semi-major axis values given above, calculate the orbital
periods of the two comets:

1P/Halley 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

13. Halley’s Comet was last at perihelion in 1986. As a ‘naked-eye’ comet, when at
perihelion it can be seen without the use of a telescope or any other instrument (which
is awesome!). Using your answer from Question 12, what year do we expect the next
opportunity to see Halley’s comet with our unaided eye?

To complete this assignment for grading:

• File → Save As… → Rename the file ‘YourLastName – KeplerLab’
• Upload to the file to the ‘Lab 3 – Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion’ assignment in
iCollege (click Add Attachments → Upload → upload renamed saved file → Update).
• Complete the Reflection activity on iCollege
• Contemplate how old you will be when Halley’s Comet returns!