Jupiter Orbit Semi-Major Axis

aJup=7.7857×1011 ma_{\mathrm{Jup}} = 7.7857 \times 10^{11}\ \text{m}
Value7.7857e11 m
StatusConventional / typical value
SourceNASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheet, Jupiter (semimajor axis)
CategoriesAstronomicalsolar-systemplanets
Jupiter Orbit Semi-Major Axis in every length unit
Planck length4.8171235e+46 lP
femtometer7.7857000e+26 fm
picometer7.7857000e+23 pm
bohr radius1.4712841e+22 a0
angstrom7.7857000e+21 Å
nanometer7.7857000e+20 nm
micrometer7.7857000e+17 μm
thou3.0652362e+16 thou
point2.2069701e+15 pt
millimeter778,570,000,000,000 mm
pica183,914,170,000,000 pc
centimeter77,857,000,000,000 cm
inch30,652,362,000,000 in
decimeter7,785,700,000,000 dm
hand7,663,090,600,000 hh
link3,870,247,800,000 li
foot2,554,363,500,000 ft
US survey foot2,554,358,400,000 ftUS
yard851,454,510,000 yd
meter778,570,000,000 m
fathom425,727,250,000 ftm
rod154,809,910,000 rd
chain38,702,478,000 ch
cable length4,203,941,700 cb
furlong3,870,247,800 fur
kilometer778,570,000 km
mile483,780,970 mi
nautical mile420,394,170 nmi
league161,260,320 lea
megameter778,570 Mm
Earth radius122,205.31 REarth
light-second2,597.03 ls
lunar distance2,025.4215 LD
solar radius1,119.1174 Rsun
light-minute43.283833 lmin
astronomical unit5.204419 AU
light-year0.000082294914 ly
parsec0.000025231735 pc
kiloparsec2.5231735e-08 kpc
megaparsec2.5231735e-11 Mpc
gigaparsec2.5231735e-14 Gpc

Learning zone

Jupiter's distance sets the solar system's floor plan. Just inside it, at the 5.2-au frost line's inner edge, orbital resonances with the giant planet stir the asteroid belt: the Kirkwood gaps are swept clean at the 3:1 and 2:1 period ratios, and the belt's total mass — less than the Moon's — is what Jupiter's perturbations left unaccreted. Sharing the orbit itself ride the Trojan asteroids, thousands of bodies trapped 60° ahead of and behind the planet at the L4 and L5 Lagrange points, targets of NASA's Lucy mission.

The 5.2-au distance also made Jupiter the proving ground of Ole Rømer's great discovery: eclipse timings of the moon Io arrive up to 16 minutes late as Earth moves from the near to the far side of its orbit, the lag from which the speed of light was first measured in 1676.