A team of international scientists recently published the discovery of nine new hot Jupiter exoplanets in The Astronomical ...

But rather than changing the angle of sunlight, the main effect of eccentricity is changing the lengths of the seasons. Think of it this way-- a circular orbit creates seasons of equal lengths.

Termed Milankovitch cycles, eccentricity considers the shape of Earth's orbit changing from circular to more elliptical over 100,000 year timescales, while obliquity refers to the varying 'tilt ...