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Orbits

What is the Solar System?

An illustration of the Solar System

Why Does the Earth Have Seasons?

A diagram of the position of the Earth at different points in its orbit around the Sun that create the four seasons.

Interactive Orrery

An Orrery is a moving, mechanical model of the Solar System. It shows how all of the planets orbit around the Sun.

A illustration of the planets orbiting the Sun. Each planet has a clock face on it.

Kepler's Laws: Find the Mass of the Sun

Many years ago, a mathematician named Johannes Kepler created a set of rules explaining planets' movement in our Solar System.

The picture shows a cartoon portrait of Johannes Kepler in front of an artist's impression of the Solar System.

What Is Kepler's Third Law?

This is a cartoon image of Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton with a parchment-like background. A diagram of a planet's orbit is featured in the middle behind the figures. To the right of the figures, is a cartoon of an apple falling.

What Is Kepler's Second Law?

This is a cartoon image of Johannes Kepler with a parchment-like background. A diagram of a planet's orbit is featured in the top right corner.

What is Kepler's First Law?

This is a cartoon image of Johannes Kepler with a parchment-like background. A diagram of a solar system is featured in the top right corner.

What are Asteroids and Comets?

The image shows an asteroid in space on the left, and a comet viewed from Earth on the right.

What is Gravity?

Planet Earth in space. Three children are standing on the planet. Arrows show the pull of gravity from where they are on the surface into the centre of the Earth.

Why Does the Earth Have Tides?

The level of the sea rises and falls about 2 times each day. We call these changes tides. But what causes them?

Still image from the tides simulator showing the Moon in orbit around the Earth

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