Question Do Physicists and Astronomers still Teach that Planets have Elliptical Orbits?

Hello. My formal education was in the early 70s. It was in physics, but my sense of reason could not accept space-time. I studied mechanics and electronics. I started in circuit troubleshooting and finished as a systems integrator. I unexpectedly became disabled about 8-9 years ago, and decided to review modern theory. After all, we have a library in which Alexandria could only dream of.

I came across some images of a moon of Jupiter(I think) flying thru a debris field. And it about floored me. That moon was not traveling in an elliptic, it was moving in a spiral, a helix. To me, this was mind shocking news. It reminded me of a charge thru a cloud chamber.

But for some reason, I seem to be the only one that marvels about it. To me, two perpendicular rotations(a spiral confined in an orbit) is a lot different than an elliptic. Different directions and different velocities. Think of a stripe on a hula hoop. Planet orbit inclination is due to the radius of the spiral.

I would think that this helix trajectory would have changed the world. Perhaps modern theory. Aren't all gravity and momentum equations based on a 2D elliptic?

It seems to be ignored, or un-important to many scientists.

Have I caught a unicorn or am I chasing one?
 
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I'm not quite sure what you are trying to say; you must be clear on your wording.

A helix is (in mathematics) a curve on the surface of a cylinder or cone so its angle to a plane perpendicular to the axis is constant; spiral is (in geometry) a curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point.

As you can see, the two, helix and spiral, are not the same. A spiral, which continuously increases its distance from the starting point, would then have a continuously changing radius.

If a moon was moving in a spiral it would be flying off into space and not maintaining an orbit,
 
You are correct, using the word spiral is confusing. If you think my grammar is bad, you ought to hear me talk......pure hick. I had four years of Latin by the 10th grade, but it never did help me with my English grammar. As anyone can tell. And now, I could not read Latin to save my life.....it was never used.

I was using the word spiral, as a verb, for movement along the helix. So sorry.

Think of a one turn stripe or one turn helix, on a hula hoop. That stripe would represent the track of one orbit. However, the "phase"(or position) of that stripe will very a little on each orbit, due to procession. So....after many orbits, and super imposing those tracks.......those multiple tracks would appear as a torus.

We see a torus, thru the debris field. If one applies that helix to earth and the other planets, one sees the cause of planetary inclination. In other words, the earth has two orbital rotations(two accelerations) that are perpendicular to each other. The first rotation has a radius of about 1.5 million miles. This stripe radius is perpendicular to the 93 million mile hula hoop radius. It takes 1 year for both radii to make one rotation.

Astronomers recently released a composite image of the black hole in the center of the milky way. I looked at this composite very closely. I did not see a black hole.

I saw a tight torus.
 
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