The diameter below represents a planet revolving in an elliptical orbit around a star. As the planet makes one complete revolution around the star, starting at the position shown, the gravitational attraction between the star and the planet will a decrease, then increase b increase, then decrease c continually decrease d remain the same

To answer this question, we need to consider Kepler's laws of planetary motion and the nature of gravitational force.Kepler's First Law states that planets orbit the sun in elliptical paths with the sun at one focus. This means that the distance between the planet and the star changes as the planet orbits the star.The gravitational force between two objects is given by Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, which states that the gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of the masses of the two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers: where is the gravitational force, is the gravitational constant, and are the masses of the two objects, and is the distance between the centers of the two objects.As the planet orbits in an elliptical path, there are points where it is closer to the star (perihelion) and points where it is farther from the star (aphelion).Step 1: Identify the points of closest and farthest approach.- When the planet is at perihelion, it is closest to the star, and the gravitational force is at its maximum because the distance is at its minimum.- When the planet is at aphelion, it is farthest from the star, and the gravitational force is at its minimum because the distance is at its maximum.Step 2: Determine the change in gravitational force as the planet orbits.- As the planet moves from perihelion to aphelion, the distance increases, so according to the formula, the gravitational force decreases.- As the planet moves from aphelion back to perihelion, the distance decreases, so the gravitational force increases.Answer: Based on this understanding, the correct answer is:a) decrease, then increaseAs the planet makes one complete revolution around the star, starting at the position shown (assuming it starts at perihelion), the gravitational attraction between the star and the planet will decrease as it moves toward aphelion and then increase as it moves back toward perihelion.