Inphysics, anorbitis thegravitationallycurved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of aplanetaround the center of a star system, such as theSolar System.Orbits of planets are typicallyelliptical, but unlike the ellipse followed by apendulumor an object attached to aspring, the central object is at a focal point of the ellipse and not at its center. Current understanding of the mechanics of orbital motion is based onAlbert Einstein'sgeneral theory of relativity, which accounts for gravity as due to curvature ofspace-time, with orbits followinggeodesics. For ease of calculation, relativity is commonly approximated by the force-based theory ofuniversal gravitationbased onKepler's laws of planetary motion.
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