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Astro-Dictionary: Eccentricity
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Most objects that revolve around the Sun have orbits only slightly distorted from a circle, thus they’re always at roughly the same distance from the Sun. Eccentricity is the measurement of this departure from a circular orbit. An eccentricity of 0 means the orbit is a circle. An eccentricity close to 1 means the orbit is very elliptical, as is typical of comets.
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This page last updated on November 28, 1999