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Kepler's first lawlaw

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Planets do not circle the Sun in perfect circles — their path resembles a slightly flattened circle, an ellipse. The Sun does not sit at the center of the ellipse but is offset to one of two special points — the foci. In winter the Earth is slightly closer to the star, in summer — farther away. The difference in distance is small, but it is precisely what makes the planet accelerate and decelerate. The same elliptical dance is performed by satellites around planets and even exoplanets around distant stars.

How it works

The law works wherever two bodies interact gravitationally and the mass of the central body significantly exceeds the mass of the satellite. It describes the orbits of planets, asteroids, comets around the Sun, the motion of satellites around planets, and the orbits of exoplanets in binary systems. Knowing the shape of the ellipse, astronomers calculate the distance to a celestial body at any moment in time. Engineers use the first law to calculate interplanetary trajectories: a flight to Mars or Jupiter is a transition from one elliptical orbit to another. Deviations from the ellipse due to the influence of other planets are small, but they are taken into account for precise navigation.

💡 Mars gave Kepler a real quest: eight years of calculations and about forty attempts to fit its orbit to a circle failed. Having discarded the perfect circle, he obtained an ellipse — and the discrepancy with observations reduced to a couple of arcminutes. Thus the first law was born, along with the habit of not trusting old dogmas.
r = \frac{a(1-e^2)}{1 + e\cos\theta}
r is the distance from the focus (Sun) to the planet at a given moment; a is the semi-major axis of the ellipse; e is the eccentricity (0 ≤ e < 1); θ is the true anomaly, the angle between the direction to perihelion and the current radius vector.
e = \frac{c}{a}
c is the distance from the center of the ellipse to the focus; a is the semi-major axis. When e = 0, the orbit is circular; as e → 1, the ellipse becomes increasingly elongated.
Links in the knowledge graph 1
Discovered by
Johannes Kepler
Related concepts
exoplanetangular momentum
Related laws
Law of Universal GravitationKepler's third law

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arXiv:2606.04052v1 · 2026-06-02

The Universe's Radio Concert: How 30 Seconds of Silence Are Changing Physics

Using the OVRO–LWA array, astronomers conducted an unprecedented survey in the 50–86 MHz band with 10 Hz resolution. The 30-second exposure produced over three million images, setting strict limits on the power of hypothetical transmitters around nearby stars. No extraterrestrial signal was detected
arXiv:2606.04304v1 · 2026-06-03

Interstellar Wanderer with a Polar Orbit

Analysis of the fireball that blazed on April 1, 2026 over the South Atlantic showed its heliocentric velocity was 51.73 km/s. That's 9.59 km/s above the threshold at which an object forever leaves the Solar System. Scientists accounted for gravitational acceleration, recalculated coordinates, and r
arXiv:2606.04379v1 · 2026-06-03

Comet Spice: How a Late Influx of Matter Reshaped the Outer Solar System

Carbonaceous chondrites that fall to Earth carry a double isotopic signature. Measurements of silicon, iron, magnesium, and chromium tell us that the stuff of Jupiter and Saturn came from two reservoirs, with a late addition of comet dust making up more than a third. Even more surprising, CI chondri
arXiv:2606.04529v1 · 2026-06-03

Speed Filter of the Skies: How Swift Visitors Elude Telescopes

Since 2017, only three interstellar bodies have been discovered — Oumuamua, Borisov, and ATLAS. New research reveals: rapid sky motion renders most such objects invisible. Analytical models and simulations show that faint visitors streak by faster than survey cameras can capture. This explains the p
arXiv:2606.05344v1 · 2026-06-03

Ultraviolet Trap: How TRAPPIST-1 Star Fakes Signs of Life

TRAPPIST-1 e is a rocky planet in the habitable zone of a red dwarf, one of astrobiologists' prime targets. But decoding its atmosphere requires a precise ultraviolet 'autograph' of the star. Simulations showed: different UV spectra dramatically alter the chemical portrait, producing deceptive pairs
arXiv:2606.05451v1 · 2026-06-03

Quantum sieve catches one-in-a-million glitches

Predicting rare disasters—market crashes, AI glitches—is nearly impossible. Classical computers demand oceans of data or predefined checklists. A new quantum algorithm flips this: it uses the blurry nature of qubits to amplify the faintest warning signs, offering a safety net for banks, power grids,
arXiv:2606.06316 · 2026-06-04

The Flare's Fiery Heart: Ions Race Along Magnetic Lines

Solar flares crank temperatures up to millions of degrees, but iron ions move much faster along magnetic lines than across them. An international team, analyzing nearly 4,600 spectra from the Japanese Hinode satellite, proved for the first time that line broadening is driven not by turbulence but by
arXiv:2606.06577v1 · 2026-06-04

Cosmic Tan: How Stellar Flares Repaint Water Worlds

Atmospheres of many sub-Neptunes are shrouded in dense organic hazes that hide their true composition. In lab experiments, such hazes were recreated from water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide, then irradiated with ultraviolet light, mimicking flares from red dwarfs. It turned out that after irrad
arXiv:2606.06691v1 · 2026-06-04

Cosmic Prospector: Sifting Stars in Search of Life

Where to look for intelligent brothers? A new parametric filter of seven criteria rejects stars unable to support complex life. From Gaia DR3's 1.74 million stars, it eliminated 55.4%, retaining 777,835 priority targets — mostly G and K dwarfs. Key rejection factors: low metallicity and youth. Notab
arXiv:2606.06692v2 · 2026-06-04

The Rapids of a Black Hole: The Birth and Death of Blanets

In the turbulent disks of active galactic nuclei, blanets form—giant planets of incredible density. Drifting toward the central black hole, they are torn apart by tidal forces, generating brief but dazzling flares in optical and ultraviolet light. Their density allows them to approach the horizon of
arXiv:2606.06884v1 · 2026-06-05

The Cosmic Forge: Why GJ 3929 b Lost Its Air

Ultra-precise photometry of four secondary eclipses of the planet in the red dwarf system GJ 3929 yielded a depth of 118±22 ppm, corresponding to a dayside temperature of about 640 K. Modeling showed that a dense carbon dioxide envelope like Venus's cannot be held, though traces of gases might remai
arXiv:2606.07511v1 · 2026-06-05

Dark Matter Sways Distant Planets

Planets on the outskirts of star systems prove to be perfect scales for invisible matter. A drifting clump of dark matter nudges their orbit just enough— a shift we can now measure. This method could uncover the primordial invisible structures lingering from the Big Bang and let us chart the dark un
arXiv:2606.14827 · 2026-06-12

Visitors from the Abyss: How Passing Planets Shaped Earth's Fate

Hundreds of rogue planets lurk on the outskirts of the Solar System. Their close encounters with Earth—even without a collision—cause waves, eruptions, and climate shifts. This explains past mass extinctions.
arXiv:2606.17105 · 2026-06-14

Inside Uranus and Neptune Lie Oceans of Magma

A new study turns our understanding of Uranus and Neptune upside down. Instead of layers of frozen water and methane, an ocean of magma soaked with hydrogen likely sloshes inside them. This idea explains all the mysteries of these planets and makes them kin to distant worlds around other stars.
arXiv:2606.18219 · 2026-06-16

A Planet's Rotation Revealed Its Fiery Secrets

Astronomers studied WASP-121 b, a gas giant always facing its star with one side. As the planet transited the star, they detected changes in light absorption: the eastern limb was hotter than the western, which destroys water and leaves carbon monoxide. This opens a method for scanning weather on su
arXiv:2606.19487 · 2026-06-17

The Earth may survive when the Sun becomes a giant

The main enemy here is not heat, but gravity. If the Sun sheds mass fast enough, Earth will retreat to a more distant orbit. Judging by observations of similar stars, we have a pretty good chance.
arXiv:2606.19575 · 2026-06-17

James Webb Fishes Out an Invisible Planet from a Dusty Disk

A third giant planet has been found around Beta Pictoris—not in an image, but through chemical traces in light: methane, water, and carbon monoxide. It is 2–4 times more massive than Jupiter and sits so far out that a year there lasts over a century. Its gravity shapes the inner edge of the dusty di
arXiv:2606.23789 · 2026-06-22

Moon Dust May Reveal Alien Technologies

Calculations show that tiny artificial particles could cross interstellar space and survive in the lunar soil. Sunlight filters out the unsuitable ones, and on the Moon, they don't burn up in an atmosphere. Even a handful of regolith could tell us how often technological civilizations arose in the G
arXiv:2606.24028 · 2026-06-23

Cosmic Collisions: How to Witness the Birth of Planets

When two would-be planets around other stars collide, the impact strikes a blinding spark. The glow slowly fades over weeks to years. New sky surveys will capture these events, unveiling the secret of world birth.
arXiv:2606.26026 · 2026-06-24

The Indigenous Perspective on the Drake Equation

The Drake Equation estimates the number of extraterrestrial civilizations, but many of its factors are a mystery. A view from the perspective of indigenous traditional knowledge dramatically changes the picture: life becomes ubiquitous, and the Galaxy—densely populated.
arXiv:2606.26296 · 2026-06-24

Traces of Mind: What We Miss in the Search for Aliens

Between searching for life and technology, there is a gap: how to notice intelligence without machines? Noosignatures — any ordered traces of a thinking being — fill this void. From a paw print to a signal without a key: a new method expands the chances of finding alien intelligence even where life
arXiv:2606.28437 · 2026-06-26

Cosmic Carving: Birth of a Bloated Neptune from a Jupiter

Astronomers discovered exoplanet TOI-2195 A b – a hot Neptune with a mass 1.5 times that of Neptune, but a radius almost as large as Jupiter's. Orbital analysis suggests a likely polar orbit. Modeling indicates the planet may have formed as a cold Jupiter, losing up to 90% of its mass during highly
arXiv:2607.01315v1 · 2026-07-01

Smoldering Giant: Methane and Haze over a Dead Star

The James Webb Space Telescope has peered into a previously unseen world: the atmosphere of the giant planet WD 1856 b, orbiting a white dwarf. The transit spectrum from 0.5 to 5.0 μm revealed hydrocarbons, including methane with a significance of 17:1 to 30:1, thick aerosols, and thermal glow from
arXiv:2607.01316v1 · 2026-07-01

The Silence of the Interstellar Wanderer: The Hunt for Radio Signals from 3I/ATLAS

Astronomers took advantage of the visit of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS to conduct a unique radio reconnaissance. Using the 500-meter FAST telescope and the method of canonical polyadic decomposition, they analyzed the data, trying to extract periodic signals against the background of terrestria
arXiv:2607.01666v1 · 2026-07-02

Galactic Recipe: How the Sun Stopped Being Special

Astrophysicists analyzed ultra-precise spectra of 79 solar twins and concluded: most Sun-like stars acquired their chemical makeup naturally—through Galactic evolution. Only a few candidates show signs of exoplanet ingestion. This confirms that our star is not an exception but a typical product of i
arXiv:2607.01699v1 · 2026-07-02

Invisible Planet in Warped Light

For the first time, a planet has been detected in TESS data using gravitational microlensing. The event Gaia23bra, identified by the Gaia survey as an isolated lens, revealed sharp caustic-crossing peaks in the TESS light curve—an unmistakable sign of a binary system with a planetary companion. Join
arXiv:2607.01853v1 · 2026-07-02

Cosmic Kick: Warm Orphans Born from Stellar Death

Analytical estimates and numerical simulations show that kicks during white dwarf formation directly liberate only ~1% of known exoplanets, but in multi-planet systems they trigger dynamical instability in 40–47% of cases, leading to planet ejections. These free-floating planets are heated to up to
arXiv:2607.02653v1 · 2026-07-02

The Voice of Light: How Secret Rings Reveal Themselves in the Disk of CI Tau

Protoplanetary disks harbor complex architecture, but the narrowest rings elude direct view. By analyzing how brightness varies along the disk's tilt, scientists found a 'double peak' — a telltale signal of optically thick rings in an optically thin background. This method unveils substructures beyo
arXiv:2607.02660v1 · 2026-07-02

Gravitational Infancy: Record Orbits in the Cradle of HD 114082

310 light-years from Earth, astronomers have found a remarkable system: a 15 million-year-old star surrounded by two transiting gas giants with record-long orbits of 225 and 314 days. Observations with TESS, CHEOPS, and ground-based telescopes measured their radii and set upper limits on their masse
arXiv:2607.02685v1 · 2026-07-02

Cosmic Debt: How a Planet's Mass Locks Civilizations Forever

Scientists from Blue Marble Space combined geophysics, atmosphere, and rocket dynamics to find the limits of chemical escape from exoplanets. A payload of 1,000 kg — like that of the Voyager probes — was used as a benchmark. It turned out that for a planet more massive than about 11.5 M⊕, the number
arXiv:2607.02691v1 · 2026-07-02

Cosmic Jazz: Three Finales of an Encounter with a Black Hole

How does a primordial black hole, a dark matter candidate, alter the fate of a planetary system? Simulations of the TOI-2796 system revealed three dramatic outcomes: planet ejection, formation of a stable triple system, and capture of the planet into an eternal journey with the black hole. The rare
arXiv:2607.03724v1 · 2026-07-04

Quasi-interstellar objects: when the Solar System meets its own exiles

The discovery of 1I/‘Oumuamua made us wonder: could some interstellar wanderers actually be our own comets, ejected from the Oort cloud and returning millions of years later? Simulations show that such ‘quasi-interstellar objects’ are indeed possible, but they have unique characteristics: extremely
arXiv:2607.04216v1 · 2026-07-05

The Unmixed Cocktail: Why Double Diffusion Is Powerless in the Interiors of Giant Planets

A new study has, for the first time, self-consistently incorporated the recipe of double diffusion into an evolutionary code of planets and traced the fate of Jupiter and Saturn from the moment of formation. It turns out that even a thousandfold enhancement of mixing does not lead to significant sme
arXiv:2607.04629v1 · 2026-07-06

The Icy Moons' Double Breath: JWST Unravels the Mystery of Uranus's Carbon Dioxide

Spectrograph NIRSpec aboard the JWST telescope has discerned a complex mosaic of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide bands on Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Comparison with laboratory ices at cryogenic temperatures revealed signatures of crystalline CO₂, clathrates, and carbonates. The observed
arXiv:2607.05600v2 · 2026-07-06

Cosmic Flash: Why Advanced Civilizations Vanish from the Ether

A model based on exponential technological growth shows: the faster a civilization develops, the shorter the period during which it emits technosignatures we can detect. At rates comparable to Earth's after the emergence of AI, this window could be less than twenty years. Traditional narrowband sear
arXiv:2607.07413 · 2026-07-08

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life: From Smoke to Gardens

We've been searching the skies for factory chimney smoke, but we should be looking for blooming gardens. A new approach in astronomy suggests shifting focus from pollution to ecological harmony.
arXiv:2607.07592 · 2026-07-08