Earth’s Movement Across its Orbit

For Question 10, asking, “At which of the Earth-Mars orbital positions does retrograde motion occur?” my answer was “B. Mars at opposition with Earth passing it.” I answered this question the way I did because when a planet is undergoing retrograde motion, it appears to be moving toward the east, which is the opposite direction. According to Spanner (2023), when the Earth’s orbit moves past a planet, it does so on the inside, which is why the other planet appears to be moving in zigzag or looping across the sky. The planet also appears to be moving backward, thus demonstrating the retrograde motion. Spanner (2023) argues that the term opposition in the study of the movement of planets is used when a planet seems to be in the opposite direction of the sun when observed from Earth. Opposition mainly happens once a year for every planet. However, Mars’s opposition happens every two years because the Earth overtakes Mars every 26 months. The main cause of opposition is the Earth passing between the sun and a planet. Opposition is also observed when a planet reaches the closest point to the Earth, making it look brighter and bigger.

Interesting Remarks about the Module

The module has been educative in understanding the Earth’s movement across its orbit and how it affects other planets’ position. The module also provides a clear description of the retrograde motion of planets and how the Earth contributes to the motion. The diagrams used in the module helped in understanding the position of the Earth and other planets at different times based on various angles and the origin of morning and evening stars. For example, the locator instruction book demonstrating how Venus and Mercury have smaller orbits than Earth helped in understanding why the two planets are visible in the sky as morning and evening stars. The questions in the module were also helpful in interpreting the concepts about planets’ movement across the sky because they required applying the knowledge shared in the module to explain specific phenomena.

References

Spanner, H. (2023). Retrograde motion of the planets: Everything you need to know. BBC Science Focus Magazine. https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/retrograde

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