Orbital pole: Difference between revisions

{{UnreferencedMore stub|auto=yescitations needed|date=DecemberJanuary 20092021}}

[[File:Snapshot of the planetary orbital poles.png|right|300px|thumb|The north orbital poles of the [[Solar systemSystem]] planets all lie within [[Draco (constellation)|Draco]]. The central yellow dot in the centre isrepresents the [[Sun]]'s Northnorth pole. [[Jupiter]]'s north orbital pole is incolored orange, [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] in's pale blue, [[Venus]] in's green, [[Earth]] in's blue, [[Mars]] in's red, [[Saturn]]'s in violetmagenta, [[Uranus]] in's grey, and [[Neptune]] in's lavender. That of the [[Dwarfdwarf planet]] [[Pluto]] is shown as the dotless cross off in [[Cepheus (constellation)|Cepheus]].]]

An '''orbital pole''' is either endpoint at the ends of the '''orbital normal''', an imaginary [[line runningsegment]] that runs through thea center[[Focus (geometry)|focus]] of an [[orbit]] (of a revolving body like a [[planet]], [[Natural satellite|moon]] or [[satellite]]) and is [[perpendicular]] (or [[Normal (geometry)|normal]]) to the [[orbital plane,]]. projectedProjected onto the [[celestial sphere]]., Itorbital ispoles are similar in concept to a [[celestial pole]]s, but are based on the planetbody's orbit instead of theits planet's[[celestial rotationequator|equator]].

The [[north]] orbital pole of a celestialrevolving body is defined by the [[right-hand rule]]:. If you curve the fingers of yourthe right hand are curved along the [[retrograde and prograde motion|direction of orbital motion]], with yourthe thumb extended and oriented to be parallel to the orbital [[Axisaxis of rotation|axis]], then the direction yourthe thumb points is defined to be the orbital north.