Deep Science | Documentary Tapes

What is wrong with Mercury's orbit? | Mercury Planet Exploration Mercury Orbit Explained   The 200-year-old mystery of Mercury's orbit — solved! It wasn't too long after Newton published his laws of motion that people noticed something was off about them. To be specific, they were off by the orbit of an entire planet. And they remained off until Einstein, and general relativity explained why Mercury moves the way it does. The laws of motion were, and remain powerful tools for understanding the world. When they debuted, Newton used them to explain the motions of pendulums and the motions of planets. Both the earthly and the celestial fell into the realm of the explainable, and people settled back, comfortable with their conception of the universe. That is until something about Mercury's orbit seemed just a tad off. The Precession of Mercury The orbits of the planets are slight ovals, with the sun located toward one end of the oval. The point at which the planet comes clo...