What a fantastic radio show you put on! Something I\'ve been wondering for a ver

Question

What a fantastic radio show you put on! Something I've been wondering for a very long time - I have understood your explanation of why planets revolve around stars - the fact that they have energy and are constantly 'falling' but because they have forward motion and want to keep moving in a straight line, they keep 'missing' the thing they are falling towards and therefore move around it. What I wanted to ask is why the orbits are often elliptical and not circular. I know that some of the plans have elliptical orbits, and some comets' orbits are very elliptical. How does this work and what causes it?

Explanation / Answer

The simplest kind of orbit is a circle where the planet is trying to travel in a straight line which is carrying it further away from the star it

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