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LAWS OF PLANETARY MOTION

BY: JOHANNES KEPLER

CATEGORY: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – ASTRONOMY

Johannes Kepler: The

Laws of Planetary Motion

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. 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 foci from any point on the ellipse is a constant. In terms of the
diagram shown to the left, with "x" marking the location of the foci, we have the
equation

a + b = constant

that defines the ellipse in terms of the distances a and b.

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:

I. 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
center 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:

 II. 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:

III. The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary

periods for two planets is equal to the ratio of the
cubes of their semimajor axes:
In this equation P represents the period of revolution for a planet and R represents
the length of its semimajor axis. 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. Thus, we find that Mercury, the innermost
planet, takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun but the outermost planet (Pluto) requires
248 years to do the same.

Here is a java applet allowing you to investigate Kepler's Laws, and Here is an
animation illustrating the actual relative periods of the inner planets.

Calculations Using Kepler's Third Law

A convenient unit of measurement for periods is in Earth years, and a convenient
unit of measurement for distances is the average separation of the Earth from the
Sun, which is termed an astronomical unit and is abbreviated as AU. If these units
are used in Kepler's 3rd Law, the denominators in the preceding equation are
numerically equal to unity and it may be written in the simple form

This equation may then be solved for the period P of the planet, given the length of
the semimajor axis,

or for the length of the semimajor axis, given the period of the planet,

As an example of using Kepler's 3rd Law, let's 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
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

which is indeed the observed orbital period for the planet Pluto.