Gravity and the Solar System

The planets formed from the collisions and mergers of rocky planetesimals.

Relates the distance of a planet from the sun to the time it takes to go once around its orbit.

Formed in the outer disk that have rocky or metallic cores and deep atmospheres of gas and ice.

The inward force that causes an object to move in a circular path.

Larger bodies of mass, several kilometers in diameter, which forms planets through collisions.

The path that a body follows as it travels around another body in space.

A force of attraction between objects due to their masses and the distances between them.

The cloud from which a solar system forms.

Planetary orbits are ellipses with the sun at one focus.

The first scientist to mathematically describe how the force of gravity behaved.

The disk filled with planetesimals in which our planets formed.

The flattened disk formed by a nebula as the center is pulled towards the middle by gravity.

The point where an object is farthest from the sun during orbit.

The point where an object is closest to the sun during orbit.

Planets move faster in their orbits when closer to the sun.