Astronomers discover a new comet that follows a highly elliptical orbit. What is its eccentricity likely to be?(1 point)

Question

Responses

0.1500
0.1500

0.0009
0.0009

0.0014
0.0014

0.9200

Answer 1

A highly elliptical orbit for a comet indicates a high eccentricity value. The range of eccentricity (e) for orbits varies from 0 to 1, where:

• e = 0 represents a perfect circle,
• e < 1 represents elliptical orbits,
• e = 1 is parabolic (the trajectory of an object at the threshold of escaping gravitational influence),
• e > 1 indicates hyperbolic trajectories.

For highly elliptical comets, the eccentricity is typically close to 1. Among the options given, the value that most closely represents a highly elliptical orbit is:

0.9200

So, the likely eccentricity of the new comet is 0.9200.