Invariable plane

Inclination to the invariable plane for the gas giants:
Year Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
2009[1] 0.32° 0.93° 1.02° 0.72°
142400[2] 0.48° 0.79° 1.04° 0.55°
168000[3] 0.23° 1.01° 1.12° 0.55°

The invariable plane of a planetary system is the plane passing through its barycenter (center of mass).

In the Solar System, about 98% of this effect is from the mass of the four gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). The invariable plane is within 0.5° of the orbital plane of Jupiter.[1] It is the weighted average of all planetary orbital and rotational planes.

The invariable plane is got from the sum of angular momenta, and is perpendicular to the angular momentum vector of the planets. It is almost invariable (unchanging) over the entire system.

  1. 1.0 1.1 "MeanPlane (invariable plane) for 2009/04/03". 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-04-03. (produced with Solex 10 Archived 2008-12-20 at the Wayback Machine)
  2. "MeanPlane (invariable plane) for 142400/01/01". 2009-04-08. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2009-04-10. (produced with Solex 10)
  3. "MeanPlane (invariable plane) for 168000/01/01". 2009-04-06. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2009-04-10. (produced with Solex 10)

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