The Mass of the Sun

Quantities aren't really quantities, even if we give them names. Words define the thing, even though the thing may be unknown.

The current generation of Trekkie scientists assume that you can measure the mass of the sun from a deep space probe. That's what popular science (SciPop) is now, an inductive rationalization of the Star Trek universe.

Inner and Outer Planets

The inner and outer planets have elliptical orbits because they orbit the Earth-sun binary system. Binary system? That's cool, there's one of those in Star Wars, right? Tatooine? Binary sunset?

Eccentricity

Eccentricity is due to variation in the orbital radius of the Sun, not variation in the Earth-sun radial distance. The solar orbit is helical, origin of its Greek name "Helios".