Assertion: mercury's orbit | /r/HasProperty | elliptical
Facets:
value: highly
type: DEGREE
Source sentences:
text: But when Mercury is moving fastest in its elliptical orbit around the Sun, and it is closest to the Sun, each rotation is not accompanied by a sunrise and sunset like on most other planets.
text: Mercury travels in an elliptical orbit slowing down when it’s farther from the Sun, and accelerating as it draws closer.
text: It also has an elliptical orbit which, although not as elliptical as Pluto's, is very marked, as the closest it gets to the Sun (its perihelion) is 46 million km while the furthest it ever gets (its aphelion) is 70 million km.
text: Mercury moves faster than the Earth as it travels around the Sun; however, Mercury has a highly elliptical orbit, so the speed of its orbit changes.
text: Mercury's orbit is elliptical, though, and its distance from the sun varies by 24 million kilometers (15 million miles).
text: Because Mercury has an elliptical orbit around the sun--compared with Earth's circular orbit--and because it has such a slow rotation, this makes the sun appear to move in a way that people from Earth would find highly unusual.
text: Although all planetary orbits are elliptical, Venus's orbit is the closest to circular, with an eccentricity of less than 0.01.