Exit Help
Inner Solar System Viewer
Help File
Six bodies are depicted here. The Sun (yellow) is at the center of the
diagram, and the terrestrial planets Mercury (grey), Venus (green),
Earth (blue), and Mars (red) follow nearly circular orbits around the
Sun. You can change the orbit of
the sixth object, an asteroid (red, connected to Sun by yellow line),
with the sliders underneath the diagram.
The Semimajor Axis, a, is measured in units of
Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is the distance from the Earth to the
Sun.
The orbial Eccentricity, e, is unitless. This
parameter is a measure of the roundness of the orbit and can take on
any positive value.
- For e = 0, the orbit is a circle
- For 0 < e < 1, the orbit is an ellipse.
- For e > 1, the orbit is a hyperbola.
The Longitude of pericenter, w (omega), is an
angle with units of degrees. Omega is measured from a reference
direction, here the positive x-axis (green line at 3 o'clock), to
pericenter (the closest approach of the orbit to the Sun).
Exit Help
Created on Nov 21, 1998.