Project Goal: To observe the heliocentric orbits of the planets closest to the Sun.
What You Need for This Project
To do this project you will have to be able to view the movie clip included with this project. All Macs come with a version of QuickTime and computers running Windows have a movie viewer called Media Player. The movie clip should play using either type of computer or player.
If your computer does not have QuickTime movie viewer installed you can download the Macintosh or Windows version from the internet by clicking on QuickTime. Also, an installable version of QuickTime is included on the StarryNight CD program disk.
Start the movie and watch as the inner planets as they orbit the Sun. Drag the horizontal scroll box to the left to rewind to the first frame of the movie. Clicking once to the right of the scroll box will advance to the next time frame. Alternately, if you are using a QuickTime viewer, you can click the right arrow at the end of the scroll bar. Each click advances one time frame forward. The left arrow allows you to step backward in time.
What You Need to Know for this Project
In the upper left hand corner of the movie screen you will see the date and time (12 noon Universal Time) for each movie frame starting at the beginning of the year 2000 and ending at the beginning of the year 2001. The time step between each frame is two days.
For a discussion of the motions of celestial objects see Voyage 1.
The Sidereal Period of Revolution (SPR) is the time required for a planet to orbit once around the Sun.
To begin your observations click The Inner Solar SystemFor additional information click the internet connection The Nine Planets
Print or copy the Project Results Form on which to record you answers and hand it in to your instructor.
Results Form
Name____________________ Student Number__________ Class ______________
Date ____________________
Based on your observations:
1. Do all the planets appear to move around the Sun in the same plane as the Earth (the Ecliptic plane)?
2. Do all the planets appear to move around the Sun in the same direction as the Earth?
3. What is the approximate SPR of Mercury? _______________ days
4. What is the approximate SPR of Venus? ______________days
5. What is the SPR of Earth? ______________days
6. Describe how the sidereal periods of revolution change with increasing distance from the Sun.
7. State Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.
First Law:
Second Law:
Third Law: