Orbital Mechanics — uploop-vided

Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Drag the sliders to adjust planetary mass, initial velocity and observe how the orbit changes. Kepler's second law states a line joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.

Planet Mass 1.0 M⊕

Initial Speed 1.0 v₀

Launch Angle 90°

Zoom 1.0×

Orbit Data
Semi-major axis: — AU
Eccentricity: —
Period: —
Current speed: —
Area swept: —

Kepler's Second Law
The line connecting the planet to the sun sweeps equal areas in equal times. The green sectors show this — each sector represents the same time interval.
v = √(GM(2/r − 1/a)) — Vis-viva equation