question: Asteroids, comets, and planets move around the sun in curved paths called what?
distractor3: ellipticals
distractor1: satellites
distractor2: curves
correct_answer: orbits
support: Earth and many other bodies—including asteroids, comets, and the other planets—move around the sun in curved paths called orbits. Generally, the orbits are elliptical, or oval, in shape. You can see the shape of Earth’s orbit in the Figure below . Because of the sun’s relatively strong gravity, Earth and the other bodies constantly fall toward the sun, but they stay far enough away from the sun because of their forward velocity to fall around the sun instead of into it. As a result, they keep orbiting the sun and never crash to its surface. The motion of Earth and the other bodies around the sun is called orbital motion . Orbital motion occurs whenever an object is moving forward and at the same time is pulled by gravity toward another object. You can explore orbital motion and gravity in depth with the animation at this URL:.