How long is Jupiter's orbit?

Jupiter takes 11.86 years to go once round the Sun. It is travelling at 12.80 km/s at the moment — a speed that changes through the orbit, fastest at perihelion and slowest at aphelion.

What shape is Jupiter's orbit?

An ellipse with the Sun at one focus, not at the centre. Its eccentricity is 0.0482, derived here from the perihelion and aphelion distances rather than quoted: 4.953 AU at closest and 5.454 AU at furthest, a difference of 75,004,293 km.

Where is Jupiter in its orbit now?

5.310 AU from the Sun — 0.794 billion km — which is 71% of the way from its closest point to its furthest. It next reaches aphelion on 28 December 2028.

Jupiter

Jupiter's orbit

Once round the Sun every 11.86 years, on an ellipse drawn here from the ephemeris rather than from a formula.

Looking down on the plane of the ecliptic, traced from the ephemeris over one full orbit of 11.9 years. Mars’s orbit is the faint one, for scale. The Sun sits off the centre of the ellipse — that offset is the eccentricity, and it is why the two distances differ.

Orbital period: 11.86; years for one lap
Eccentricity: 0.0482; 0 would be a circle
Semi-major axis: 5.203; AU · the orbit's average radius
Speed now: 12.80; km/s, from the ephemeris

What is worth knowing about it

Jupiter takes almost twelve years to go round, which is why it appears to move through roughly one constellation of the zodiac per year — a pattern noticed and recorded for millennia before anyone knew what it meant.

The shape of it

Jupiter does not travel a circle. It comes as close as 4.953 AU (0.741 billion km) and goes as far as 5.454 AU (0.816 billion km) — aphelion is 1.10 times further out than perihelion, a swing of 75,004,293 km. At 0.0482 the orbit is close to circular. The difference is real and measurable, but not something the eye would pick out of a drawing.

Because the Sun sits at a focus rather than the centre, Jupiter does not move at a constant speed either. It runs fastest when it is closest and slowest when it is furthest, sweeping equal areas in equal times — which is Kepler's second law, and is visible in the diagram above as the uneven spacing of a constant time step.

Where it is now

Today Jupiter is 5.310 AU from the Sun, 71% of the way from perihelion to aphelion, travelling at 12.80 km/s. It reaches aphelion on 28 December 2028 at 5.454 AU.

Common questions

How long is Jupiter's orbit?: Jupiter takes 11.86 years to go once round the Sun. It is travelling at 12.80 km/s at the moment — a speed that changes through the orbit, fastest at perihelion and slowest at aphelion.
What shape is Jupiter's orbit?: An ellipse with the Sun at one focus, not at the centre. Its eccentricity is 0.0482, derived here from the perihelion and aphelion distances rather than quoted: 4.953 AU at closest and 5.454 AU at furthest, a difference of 75,004,293 km.
Where is Jupiter in its orbit now?: 5.310 AU from the Sun — 0.794 billion km — which is 71% of the way from its closest point to its furthest. It next reaches aphelion on 28 December 2028.

Positions from VSOP87 via Astronomy Engine, accurate to within one arcminute. The orbit above is traced by sampling a full period rather than drawn from elements, so the tilt and the off-centre Sun are the real ones. See Jupiter’s distance from the Sun, Jupiter right now, or watch the whole system move in the live simulation.