Sentences with phrase «round in close orbits»

But instead of orbiting sedately, hundreds of millions of kilometres from their stars, the first crop were frantically whirling round in close orbits, blistering in hellish heat.

Not exact matches

Precession, which decides whether the Earth is closer to the sun in July or in January, is on a 23,000 - year cycle; obliquity, which decides how tilted the axis of the Earth is and therefore how warm the summer is, is on a 41,000 - year cycle; and eccentricity, which decides how rounded or elongated the Earth's orbit is and therefore how close to the sun the planet gets, is on a 100,000 - year cycle.