Can someone help me in Astronomy?

Question

What does:

Eccentricity of Orbit mean?
Inclination of axis of rotation (in degrees) mean?
Inclination of planet's orbit to the ecliptic (earth's orbit) in degrees?
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec)?
Escape velocity (km/sec)?
Equatorial Radius (km)?
Adbedo?
Oblatedness?

Answer 1

Eccentricity of Orbit

How much the orbit deviates from a true circle, i.e. oval or egg shaped.

Inclination of axis of rotation (in degrees)

The difference of tilt between an objects rotational axis (A) and the perpendicular of it's revolution (B). If Earth's orbit were represented by a circle on a table, and you stood a pencil straight up on the edge of the circle, that would be (A). If you put the Earth right were the pencil is touching the table and stuck a second pencil through the North and South Pole, that would be (B). The angle formed by the two pencils is the inclination.

Inclination of planet's orbit to the ecliptic (earth's orbit) in degrees?

Not all planets orbit the Sun on the same plane. The difference is that measurement. Picture the lines on a beach ball. If the lines between the colors were planetary orbits around the center of the ball, the angle can be measured where all the colors meet on the end (except for the circle on the end, but you get the picture).

Mean orbital velocity (km/sec)?

It's the orbital velocity that picks on all the other orbital velocities. Just kidding. Mean, in mathematical terms, means average. Planets on an elliptical orbit don't travel at the same speed all the time. You just need to find the average speed.

Escape velocity (km/sec)?

How fast something has to go to overcome gravity.

Equatorial Radius (km)?

The measure of a spinning globe (like Earth) from a point on it's equator to it's center.

Adbedo?

Albedo is the measure of the amount of light reflected by something. Like the Moon reflecting the Sun's light. Something that is perfectly white has an albedo of 1.0, absolutely black is 0.0.

Oblatedness?

Deviation from a perfect sphere. It's the ratio of the equatorial radius and the polar radius. For example, as the Earth spins, the poles get closer together and the equator gets longer, like my belt after Thanksgiving dinner. The amount the globe differs from a perfect sphere is a measure of how oblate it is.

Answer 2

The answers given above are all pretty much right.

For escape velocity, it is more specifically the minimum velocity an object must be travelling relative to a central body at a particular distance from that body in order for it's orbit about that body to be unbound. Because of this, the escape velocity for a gravitational body depends on the distance away from the object you are.

For example, the escape velocity of Earth at it's surface is about 11.2 km/sec. But, at 9000km altitude away from Earth (in space), the escape velocity is more like 7.1 km/sec.

Answer 3

Moondance - Van Morrison Cosmic aspect - B-52's Universally talking - RHCP On Mercury - RHCP i trust the Earth flow lower than My ft - Carole King, Martika area Cowboy - Steve Miller Band area Intro - ditto i intend to make the international turn round - ditto Tequila daybreak - Eagles area newborn - Spirit 2000 gentle Years from domicile - Rolling Stones Maiden of the most cancers Moon - Quicksilver Messenger service 0.5 Moon - Janis Joplin Intergalactic Laxative - Donovan :-) Cosmic Wheels - ditto Earth signal guy - ditto