For one thing, it's not a perfect circle, it's quite an elongated ellipse.

至少不一标准圆形，而更像一拉长圆。

An ellipse is an asymmetrically shaped closed oval.

任何圆都对称封闭圆形。

Remember too that the Moon's orbit around the Earth is an ellipse.

同样记住，月亮绕地球公转轨道圆。

This ellipse has an important property called eccentricity.

圆有一性质，叫做离心率。

Eccentricity measures how flattened an ellipse is compared to a circle.

偏心率衡量圆与圆相比扁平度。

As Kepler showed, the earth's orbit is an ellipse, with the sun at one of the two focal points.

就像开普勒曾指出，地球轨道圆，相对以太阳为中心绕起来话有两焦点。

As the planet orbits the star, it makes a big circle (or ellipse) .

当行星围绕恒星运行时，它会形成一大圆(或圆)。

Now, Newton predicted that the orbit of Mercury was an oval, or as scientists like to say " an ellipse."

牛顿预测水星轨道圆，或者用科学家惯用词，“圆形”。

The further apart the foci are, the more squashed the ellipse is.

焦点距离越远，圆受到挤压就越大。

Not only that, the Moon orbits the Earth on an ellipse.

不仅如此，月球绕地球公转轨道圆形。

It has two points, called foci, which act as a combined center for an ellipse.

它有两点，称为焦点，作为一圆联合中心。

Instead, they generally have a stretched version of a circle, which is technically called an ellipse.

相反，它们通常有一圆形拉伸公转，也就圆。

Well, an ellipse is a shape that resembles a kind of squashed circle.

圆一种类似于被压扁圆形状。

Well, a is the semi-major axis, or half the distance along the long axis of the ellipse.

a 半长轴，或者说圆长轴距离一半。

Its foci are two points within the ellipse that describe its shape.

它焦点圆内描述其形状两点。

Simply put, eccentricity tells how much the ellipse deviates from a perfect circle.

简单地说，离心率表示圆与正圆偏离程度。

And b is the semi-minor axis, or half the distance along the short axis of the ellipse.

b 半短轴，或者说圆短轴距离一半。

And as if they were cuboidal cells that got stretched tall, their nuclei also are stretched into an ellipse.

由于它们立方体细胞，被拉伸得很高，它们细胞核也被拉伸成圆形。

They are aligned in a rough ellipse.

它们排列成一粗略圆。

An ellipse with zero eccentricity would just be a regular old circle.

偏心率为零圆就一普通圆。