Planetary Orbits
| Planet | Eccentricity | Perihelion Distance closest point to the Sun (AU) |
Aphelion Distance farthest point from the Sun (AU) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Mercury |
0.206 |
0.31 |
0.47 |
|
Venus |
0.007 |
0.718 |
0.728 |
|
Earth |
0.017 |
0.98 |
1.02 |
|
Mars |
0.093 |
1.38 |
1.67 |
|
Jupiter |
0.048 |
4.95 |
5.45 |
|
Saturn |
0.056 |
9.02 |
10.0 |
|
Uranus |
0.047 |
18.3 |
20.1 |
|
Neptune |
0.009 |
30.0 |
30.3 |
|
Pluto |
0.248 |
29.7 |
49.9 |
| Notes: 1 AU, the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, equals 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. The eccentricity of a planet's orbit measures how much it departs from a perfect circle. Orbits with zero eccentricity (e = 0) are circular; orbits with eccentricities close to 1 (e ~ 1) are long and skinny. Planetary orbits tend to be almost circular while comets and many asteroids follow more eccentric paths. | |||
The orbits of Mercury (red), Earth (blue) and Mars (black).
The solid lines indicate each planet's elliptical path around the Sun.
The dotted lines show circular paths with the same mean separation from the
center.