Jupiter's 11.9-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its furthest point to the Sun – its aphelion – at a distance of 5.45 AU.
In practice, however, Jupiter's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 10.2% between perihelion and aphelion. This means that the difference in the amount of heat and light it receives from the Sun between aphelion and perihelion is extremely small.
Finding Jupiter
Jupiter's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From Cambridge, at the moment of aphelion it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 03:30 (EDT) – 3 hours and 7 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 27° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 06:18.
A chart of the path of Jupiter across the sky in 2040 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Jupiter at the moment it passes aphelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Jupiter | 13h20m00s | 7°12'S | Virgo | -1.7 | 31.0" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 15 Aug 2024
| The sky on 15 August 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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87% 11 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Related news
| 18 May 2040 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 14 Feb 2041 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 16 Apr 2041 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 18 Jun 2041 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini