Kepler’s laws of planetary motion are one of the most basic concepts of astronomy. In short, these correct Copernicus heliocentric theory by replacing circular orbits with elliptical ones, and explain the motion of planets.
Detailed Definition:
There are three Kepler laws of planetary motion:
Each planet's orbit about the Sun is an ellipse.
Planets do not move with constant speed along their orbits.
The period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit.
These were published in the XVII century and confirmed by Isaac Newton and are known as his laws of motion and law of universal gravitation.
Etymology:
Kepler - a surname from German
law - /lɔː/, Old English lagu, from Old Norse lag ‘something laid down or fixed’, of Germanic origin and related to lay.
Sample Sentence(s):
Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion explain how an astronomical body would orbit the heavy gravitational object.
I forgot to use Kepler’s laws during my science test, so I failed.
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