Eccentricity of the orbit of the Earth

Long-period variations

Variations for a very long period (1,000,000 BC to 1,000,000 AD)

According to Meeus (More Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Chapter 33) Simon et al. published in 1994 an expression for the eccentricity e:

e = 0.0167086342-0.0004203654*T-0.0000126734*T2+0.0000001444*T3
-0.0000000002*T4+0.0000000003*T5

where T is measured in thousands of Julian years from 2000:

T = (JD - 2451545)/365250;

The time span of validity is from 4000 BC to 8000 AD.

Compute the eccentricity by JavaScript:

Year (-4000 .. 8000):

Eccentricity e =

Write a table by JavaScript:

Variations for a very long period (1,000,000 BC to 1,000,000 AD)

Web Links

Orbital Variations (Earth Observatory, NASA)

Milankovitch Theory

(c) 2006 J. Giesen

2006, Mar 21