Use the fact that the orbit of a planet about the Sun is an ellipse, with the Sun at one focus. The aphelion of a planet is its greatest distance from the Sun, and the perihelion is its shortest distance. The mean distance of a planet from the Sun is the length of the semimajor axis of the elliptical orbit. See the illustration. 

The aphelion of Jupiter is 507 million miles. If the distance from the center of its elliptical orbit to the Sun is 23.2 million miles, what is the perihelion? What is the mean distance? Write an equation for the orbit of Jupiter around the Sun.

Transcribed Image Text:

Mean distance Perihelion Major Aphelion axis Center Sun