How can I know for any given date the distance between Jupiter and the Sun?
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2 comments
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John Pendleton I am able to answer my own question.
1---- I start with sun as my point of reference.
2--- I go to 90°N, i.e. I am at the northpole of the sun.
3--- From there I start zooming out/up. to 31AU
4--- I then clicked on the 4 outer planets and their ORBITS
5--- The actual physical position of Jupiter for today is shown.
6--- I then start to zoom in until all that I have left are the sun and Jupiter
at about 4AU from the sun.
7-- With my mouse pointer on the sun, I left click and hold and drag/draw a
red line until Jupiter and NOT releasing the Left mouse button I see a value of
5.333AU between the sun and Jupiter. 1 AU equals 149.6 million kms
8--- Therefore Jupiter today is 797.8 million kms from the sun.Jupiter's least
distance from the sun is 740.9 million kms. Jupiter is going away from the sun
in its orbit.
9--- I did the same measurement from the sun directly OPPOSITE from Jupiter
to the drawn orbit and got a reading of 4.880AU or 730.0 million kms which is close
to published closest distance of Jupiter to the sun at 740.9 million kms.
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Keiron Smith Thank you, John, for sharing you answer in the community forums!
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