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

Question

a. its orbit is close to another planet/s
b. its orbits is not closed arounds a fixed point
c. its orbit is highly elongated ellipsis
d. its orbit crosses over the orbit of another planet

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

c. its orbit is highly elongated ellipse.

When the orbital eccentricity of a planet is close to 1, it indicates that the orbit is highly elongated and less circular, approaching a parabolic trajectory. This means that the distance from the center of the orbiting body varies significantly as it moves along its path. An eccentricity of exactly 1 would denote a parabolic orbit, while values greater than 1 represent hyperbolic orbits.