Rotations and Revolutions

Rotations and Revolutions: some fun stuff I learned about this.

-Planets and other heavenly bodies typically travel in 2 ways: rotation and revolution

-A ROTATION is the planet or other body spinning on its own axis, like a basketball on a finger

-Responsible for “day and night”

-A REVOLUTION is the planet or other body traveling around a larger heavenly body (also referred to as ORBIT)

-Responsible for “YEAR”

-Revolution tends to be elliptical, or oval shaped, with an apogee (aphelion) and a perigee (perihelion)

-Apo__-object is FURTHEST FROM the thing it orbits

-Peri__-object is CLOSEST TO the thing it orbits

So, in other words, an example of an aphelion is when the Earth is furthest to the Sun, or the apex of the ellipse, and the perihelion is when the Earth is closest to the Sun.