The Geometries of the Jupiter Family

Non-aligned planes
Moons and Clouds in non-parallel planes The Geometries of the Jovian Family Coplanar orbits and clouds
Moons and Clouds are coplanar

For about half of each year, the fifth brightest natural object in the sky is the planet Jupiter.* (Why only about half of each year and not the whole year? You must learn to be a thinking astronomer! Answer: because for about half of each year the earth and Jupiter are on the opposite sides of the sun - it is thus in our daytime sky and about ≤ 186 million miles further away than when it is in the nighttime sky.)

This project is simple to do, but will take some thinking. It will be important for you to be able to form mental images of the sun and the planets revolving around it, and each of those planets rotating on its axis.

The goal of this project is to determine which of the two diagrams next to the title above is correct. And perhaps you can also come to some conclusion as to whether the orbits of Jupiter and the earth are coplanar or not.

* With the exception of the middle of 2003, when Mars took over 3rd place as it was closer to earth than it had been in the last 60,000 years. During other years, a comet might climb the brightness rankings. Normally the order of brightness is: sun, moon, Venus, Sirius (the "Dog Star"), Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, a few stars, then rarely visible Mercury, and ...