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The north orbital pole of a revolving body is defined by the right-hand rule. If the fingers of the right hand are curved along the direction of orbital motion, with the thumb extended and oriented to be parallel to the orbital axis, then the direction the thumb points is defined to be the orbital north.
The poles of Earth's orbit are referred to as the ecliptic poles. For the remaining planets, the orbital pole in ecliptic coordinates is given by the longitude of the ascending node (☊) and inclination (i): ℓ = ☊ − 90° ,b = 90° − i . In the following table, the planetary orbit poles are given in both celestial coordinates and the ecliptic coordinates for the Earth.
When a satellite orbits close to another large body, it can only maintain continuous observations in areas near its orbital poles. The continuous viewing zone (CVZ) of the Hubble Space Telescope lies inside roughly 24° of Hubble's orbital poles, which precess around the Earth's axis every 56 days.[2]
As of 1 January 2000[update], the positions of the ecliptic poles expressed in equatorial coordinates, as a consequence of Earth's axial tilt, are the following:
It is impossible anywhere on Earth for either ecliptic pole to be at the zenith in the night sky. By definition, the ecliptic poles are located 90° from the Sun's position. Therefore, whenever and wherever either ecliptic pole is directly overhead, the Sun must be on the horizon. The ecliptic poles can contact the zenith only within the Arctic and Antarctic circles.
When inclination is very near 0, the location of nodes is somewhat uncertain, and is less useful to orient the orbit. Likewise when latitude is very near a pole (±90°), the longitude is less certain or useful.
Data from "HORIZONS Web-Interface". JPL Solar System Dynamics. NASA. Retrieved 2020-09-01. Used "Ephemeris Type: Orbital Elements", "Time Span: discrete time=2451545", "Center: Sun (body center)", and selected each object's barycenter. Results are instantaneous osculating values at the precise J2000 epoch, and referenced to the ecliptic.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Orbital_pole, and is written by contributors.
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