Question

What does it mean when the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1?
Responses

its orbit is close to another planet's.
its orbit is close to another planet's. - no response given

its orbit is a highly elongated ellipsis.
its orbit is a highly elongated ellipsis. - no response given

Its orbit is not closed around a fixed point
Its orbit is not closed around a fixed point - no response given

Its orbit crosses over the orbit of another planet.

Answer 1

When the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it indicates that its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse. An eccentricity of 0 represents a perfect circle, while values approaching 1 indicate increasingly elongated orbits. Therefore, the correct interpretation is:

**its orbit is a highly elongated ellipse.**