Does a planets eccentricity depend on its distance from the sun? Why or Why Not?
No. Based upon observational data. If you look at the chart in the link below, you’ll see that there is no consistent radial relationship for orbital eccentricity for the solar planets. From Mercury to Venus, eccentricity drops. Moving from Venus to Earth to Mars it rises each time. Then orbital eccentricity drops as one moves to Jupiter then it goes up again for Saturn, However from Saturn to Uranus to Neptune, it drops again each time. So if you plot the values you’ll see there is no consistent radial relationship. I’m sticking with the accepted planets here and not including the minor ones. 🙂 Edit: If you were asking for the definition of eccentricity, then go with eelfins’ answer. My answer indicates what I thought question to be.
