Highly elliptical orbit

Imagine you're playing with a toy spaceship that's flying around a big ball. This big ball is a planet, like Earth. If your toy spaceship is flying around the planet in a circle, that means it's in a normal orbit. But if it's flying in a more squished circle that's stretched out on one side, like an oval or egg shape, that's a highly elliptical orbit.

So basically, a highly elliptical orbit is when something is moving around a planet, but it's not a perfect circle. Instead, it's an oval or egg shape. This happens because the spaceship or object is going really fast at one part of its orbit, and then slowing down as it gets further away from the planet. This makes the orbit lopsided.

Sometimes, things like rockets or satellites are sent into highly elliptical orbits on purpose. This can allow them to travel further away from the planet and explore different parts of space. But usually, things like our moon or GPS satellites are in normal orbits that are more like perfect circles.

So, in summary, a highly elliptical orbit is like a lopsided oval that shows how something is moving around a planet. It happens when something is going really fast in one part of the orbit and slower in another part.