🪐 KEPLER'S PLANETARY LAWS
PAGE 1 OF 5, ELLIPSES NOT CIRCLES
BREAKING THE CIRCLE MYTH
PLANETS DON'T MOVE IN CIRCLES
For centuries, astronomers pictured planets tracing perfect circles around the Earth or the Sun. Johannes Kepler shattered that idea. Using the precise observations of Tycho Brahe, he discovered that Mars and every other planet follow elliptical paths. An ellipse is a stretched circle with two focal points. The Sun sits at one focus, not at the centre. This was revolutionary: the heavens were not made of ideal geometric perfection, but of real, measurable curves that could be described with mathematics.
🔭 TYCHO'S DATA
Kepler spent years analysing Tycho Brahe's ultra-precise Mars observations. Only then could he see that no circle, no matter how cleverly adjusted, fit the real data.
ORBIT!
CIRCLE
⭕ Circle: one centre point
📏 Same distance everywhere
❌ Does not match real planets
📏 Same distance everywhere
❌ Does not match real planets
ELLIPSE
📐 Ellipse: two focal points
☀️ Sun at one focus
✅ Matches real planetary motion
☀️ Sun at one focus
✅ Matches real planetary motion