Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

The theory

Three laws describing how planets move: orbits are ellipses with the Sun at one focus; a line from the Sun to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times; and the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of its average distance. Derived from Tycho's observations between 1609 and 1619, they replaced circles with ellipses and made planetary motion exactly predictable.

Developed by

By

Johannes Kepler

Presented in

Knowledge connections

Introduced byAstronomia nova
Introduced byHarmonices Mundi
Developed byJohannes Kepler
Part ofThe Scientific Revolution
Associated withOrbital Elements
Associated withOrbital Period (Kepler's Third Law)
Associated withScientific Lineage
Associated withObject Explanation
Associated withScientific Summaries

Sources & references

Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.

BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica
General reference for the history of astronomy, biographies, and cultural context.

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