The maximum eccentricity possible is 1, which forms not a closed orbit but a parabola, meaning the object will never complete a full orbit but instead be flung off into space.) The difference ...

Astronomers describe the shape of an orbit as eccentricity, a number between zero and one. Zero is a perfect circle, and as long as that number doesn't reach 1 (a parabola), the planet ...

Figure 3: Modulations in the 100-kyr power of δ 18 O and eccentricity. Although not conclusive, the good fit produced by this simple model for the entire Plio-Pleistocene suggests that the same ...