Saturn and Jupiter are two of the five planets visible to the unaided eye in the night sky. Jupiter is particularly bright, appearing as a brilliant point of white light in the sky, while Saturn is a fainter dull white object, yet still about as bright as a typical bright star. Every 20 years or so Jupiter and Saturn align (i.e. are in conjunction), and during those years these planets can make a beautiful pair in the sky. Their relative motion during a conjunction year is fun to watch, and provides an excellent way to learn about planetary motions. This article covers the basics of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, and then goes into detail as to how the different conjunctions relate to one another. The more you dive in and ask more questions about the motions, the more complex the answers become. Yet ultimately all of the behavior described here comes from orbital motions of the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Nonetheless, conjunctions between Jupiter and Saturn have a lot going for them. Unlike conjunctions between any of the other bright planets, Jupiter and Saturn typically remain within ten degrees of one another in the sky for a period of a year or more around the actual date of the conjunction, making for a long event that one can easily monitor on a casual basis. Even if the conjunction itself happens to be difficult to see because it occurs close to the Sun, the planets will make an impressive pair in the night sky for months beforehand and afterwards, meaning they can be observed together when they are closest to us and appear their brightest, and are located in a fully dark sky well above the horizon. There are also rare years that feature three distinct conjunctions, all visible in the middle of the night. We discuss how all this plays out below.
Because the orbits of the planets all lie nearly in one plane, a natural thing to do is to measure the angle (known as longitude) to the position of the planet measured in the plane of the Earth's orbit counterclockwise from some reference direction. In the diagrams below, that reference direction is to the right, and is where the Sun appears when viewed from the Earth on the first day of spring. With this choice, the rightmost part of the orbit has longitude zero degrees, the top is 90 degrees, leftmost is 180 degrees, and bottom is 270 degrees. If Jupiter and Saturn have the same longitude as viewed from the Earth, we will call that a conjunction. Notice by this definition the planets may approach one another, but until the longitudes overlap we don't count it as a conjunction. For orbits in a plane, conjunction defined this way means that the planets exactly align during conjunction, which is what we want. As a technical point, the closest approach is called an appulse. But whenever two planets like Jupiter and Saturn pass one another they are moving along the plane, so the closest approach (appulse) coincides with the longitudes being the same (conjunction) to a high degree of accuracy.
Because the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn around the Sun are both significantly larger than the size of the Earth's orbit, the view of the planets from the Earth is similar to what you'd see from from Sun. Hence, the time of conjunction as seen from the Earth is quite similar to the moment where they have the same longitude as viewed from the Sun, and we can use this fact to help think about the problem. Where the Earth is located in its orbit has crucial consequences as to whether a conjunction can be observed, as the Earth's position determines the time of year of the conjunction and also its elongation from the Sun, but we can worry about those aspects once we get the general cycles of the conjunctions figured out.
Suppose Jupiter and Saturn line up when viewed from the Sun (as in the figure below). How long would it take for them to line up again? Jupiter takes 11.86 years = 4332.59 days to orbit, and so on average moves 0.083092 degrees per day. Saturn moves around slower, at 0.033463 degrees per day. Thus, Jupiter is constantly picking up 0.0496284 degrees on Saturn every day. After a time (360/0.0496284) days = 7253.91 days = 19.86 years, Jupiter will have gained 360 degrees on Saturn and once again the planets will align as viewed from the Sun. For this reason, Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions happen about once every 20 years. You can break up your life into a few of these segments if you like, marking time with this cosmic watch. A typical lifespan includes four conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn.
Diagram to scale of the orbits of the Earth, Jupiter and Saturn.
Initially, we align Jupiter and Saturn relative to the Sun at longitude = 0 in
an event denoted as 'Conjunction 0'. Subsequent conjunctions are labeled. Conjunctions
3 and 6 nearly line up with Conjunction 0. The Earth moves slowly clockwise in its
orbit for successive conjunctions. For example, if the Earth (blue dot) is at position
0 for Conjunction 0, it will be at position 3 for Conjunction 3 and position 6 for
Conjunction 6.
Notice after three conjunctions we are nearly back to the same position in the
orbits! At that point Jupiter has gone around just over 5 times and Saturn just
over 2 times. We could have noticed this by dividing their mean motions
(0.083092/0.033463) = 2.483 ~ 2.5 = 5/2. So it isn't a perfect resonance, but
it is pretty close. Hence, we might expect conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn
to occur in distinct groups of three, and after three conjunctions we'd return
to about the same place in the figure. Hence,
grouping conjunctions into three series ensures that each conjunction
in that series occurs in the same general location in the sky.
Resonances of this sort are common occurrences in celestial mechanics, and cause
gaps and concentrations in many orbiting systems, such as Saturn's rings (resonances
with its moons) and the asteroid belt (resonances with Jupiter).
Although the above series of three is real, we forgot one detail - we are observing from the Earth
and not from the Sun. If you are on the bottom side of the Earth's orbit and Jupiter and Saturn
are off to the right (e.g., Conjunction 3), then Jupiter and Saturn
will be visible in the morning sky before dawn, while if you are on
the other side of the Earth's orbit (e.g. Conjunction 6) the planets will be visible in the evening sky after sunset.
That is, after three conjunctions = 59.58 years, the Earth completes a bit more than 59-1/2 of its own
orbits, and so is nearly on the other side of its orbit from wherever it was three conjunctions ago.
So this isn't good - if we said that Conjunction 3 was in the same series as
Conjunction 6 then one event would evening, the next one morning, then evening, and so on
for adjacent events in the series. Instead, if we break up the conjunctions into groups of
six, then after six conjunctions = 119.1608 years, Jupiter and Saturn
will now have moved 2*8.15 = 16.3 degrees ahead (counterclockwise)
as viewed from the Sun, while the Earth has
moved 0.1608*360 = 57.9 degrees, or about 2 months, also in the same direction.
Animation of 120 years of the motions of the Earth (inner orbit), Jupiter
(middle orbit), and Saturn (outer orbit). The orbits are to scale. Conjunctions
of Jupiter and Saturn as viewed from the Sun are marked as C-0 through C-6.
You'll notice that there will be slight differences between when Jupiter and Saturn
line up with the Sun and when they line up with the Earth. For example, in
the diagram, Conjunction 3 as viewed from the Sun occurs a bit earlier for
the Earth because the Earth is on the bottom half of its orbit, and from that vantage point
Jupiter has already passed Saturn when Jupiter and Saturn line up with the Sun.
Similarly, Conjunction 6 occurs a bit later for the Earth than it does for the Sun
because the Earth is on the top half of its orbit, where it does not appear
that Jupiter has passed Saturn quite yet. These small positional offsets will
introduce some scatter, but on average we expect
the dates between successive conjunctions in a series (like Conjunction 0 and
Conjunction 6) to increase by about two months or so. Within a series,
a conjunction in May should be preceded by one 119 years ago in March and followed
in 119 years by one in July. The longitudes should increase, but slowly, in a series.
This is good: adjacent conjunctions within any one of the six series will generally occur at about
the same time of the year, and because the series were constructed to keep
adjacent conjunctions in the same part of
the sky, it means the planets will have roughly the same elongation from the
Sun between adjacent conjunctions within a given series. So it makes sense to
group the conjunctions into six separate series.
Take a look at the following diagram. Here we have an outer planet
like Mars, Jupiter or Saturn being observed from the Earth. What matters
as far as an observer on Earth is concerned is the angle the planet appears
relative to the stars, indicated by the brown arrows.
In the diagram, we are taking the down direction to be zero degrees. At point
A, the planet appears at about -17 degrees. As the Earth moves from A to C,
that angle steadily increases to about +7 degrees. Increasing angles are to the
east in the sky. But between points C
and E the angle decreases, and so the planet now moves westward in the sky,
moving fastest at opposition (point D) when it appears opposite to the Sun in
the sky. This westward movement is called retrograde motion. It happens
when the Earth is passing the planet and is similar to what
you see on the highway when you drive past a slower vehicle and that vehicle
appears to move backward relative to the surrounding scenery. As far as north/south
is concerned, whether the
planet moves in either direction or even goes north and then south and makes a loop
depends on how the orbits are tilted. Here, I have the planet continuing to
go north in the bottom diagram. If the Earth and the planet were exactly in the same plane
the planet would simply shift east and west, and overwrite its path in the sky.
The Earth and the outer planets are fairly close to being in the same
plane, and so the motion is primarily left and right (east and west) on the sky.
Retrograde motion occurs between points C and E in
this diagram. Opposition occurs at point D.
Notice retrograde motion occurs only over a segment of the orbital
paths of the Earth and planet. This segment gets larger as the planet gets further away,
and approaches 180 degrees, i.e., the entire bottom half of the Earth's orbit
instead of just from C to E as in the diagram, for a very distant planet.
However, the amplitude of retrograde motion, i.e., the
distance between C and E on the sky, decreases for more distant planets.
For example, Saturn's retrograde motion typically covers about 6.6 degrees on the sky and
occurs over 141 days centered on opposition, while Jupiter retrogrades more,
9.9 degrees over a shorter interval, 123 days. From one year to the
next (opposition to opposition), Saturn moves eastward about 12 degrees on the sky,
while Jupiter moves 30 degrees eastward.
When the planets are aligned closely
enough with opposition to get triplet conjunctions, the first one of these will occur
before retrograde motion begins, and the third one will occur after retrograde motion
ends, with the middle one happening during retrograde. This is all made clear (hopefully!) in
the following animation and diagram.
Animation of a triplet opposition conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The
conjunctions occur when the line between the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn is
exactly straight, at about -100, 0, and +100 days from opposition. The animation
runs long enough to show no conjunction occurs the following year.
Longitudes of Jupiter and Saturn for a morning, triplet, and evening conjunction
from consecutive members of the conjunction years in Series 2. Longitude increases
to the east and decreases to the west. The planets move westward
(retrograde; down in the plot) around
the time of opposition. The vertical separation between the curves is the distance
between the planets in longitude, essentially equal to their separation in degrees
on the sky. If the red curve is above the black one, Saturn
is to the east of Jupiter, while if the black curve is above the red, then Saturn lies
to the west of Jupiter.
Let's think about what happens as Jupiter passes Saturn by. Three scenarios from
consecutive members of series 2 are shown in the above figure. The
Aug 25, 1563 event was a morning-only conjunction.
Jupiter caught up with Saturn and moved well past it before the planets
began to retrograde. By then Jupiter had gone too far ahead, and its
retrograde motion was not enough to catch up with Saturn again, so there
was only one conjunction, at longitude 125.3 degrees.
After 119 years in 1682-1683, the next conjunction in the series occurs
in roughly the same part of the sky at longitude 143.5 degrees,
about two months later in the year
in the morning of Oct 23, 1682. But this time the curve for Jupiter was shifted
just a bit to the west (lower longitudes) relative to Saturn than it was in 1563.
So this time Jupiter caught up with Saturn as they both moved westward during
their retrograde motions and there was a
conjunction on Feb 8, 1683, only a few days from opposition for
both planets. After a month or two the planets again turned to the
east, and Jupiter passed Saturn for a third time, visible in the evening skies
on May 17, 1683. The next event in this series, 119 years later, was
on July 16, 1802. The steady progression of Jupiter's curve to lower
longitudes relative to Saturn's produced an evening-only event, as Jupiter did not catch up
to Saturn before retrograde. In this way, conjunctions within a
series move from the morning sky, to a triplet near opposition, to the evening sky.
Conjunctions within a series typically move forward about 1 - 2 months
between successive events, and we see that here, as the morning conjunctions shifted
from Aug 25 to Oct 23 between 1563 and 1682, and the evening one moved from
May 17 to July 16 between 1683 and 1802. Triplet conjunctions are a bridge that
connect the morning events with the evening ones.
Triplet conjunctions are rather rare, as the oppositions need to line up
fairly well to get all three conjunctions, but they do happen regularly and
we should be on the lookout for them as we go forward.
As the above animation shows, the opposition that follows
a conjunction year does not produce
another conjunction (also no conjunctions occur in the preceding year)
For example, after the 1802 conjunction there was no conjunction 1803:
Jupiter needed to loop completely around the sky relative to Saturn before
they lined up again about 20 years later in the morning of June 18, 1821.
However, that conjunction was part of a different series and occurred in
a different part of the sky from the one in 1802.
The following table compiles
data for the conjunctions between 1200 CE and 2400 CE. The longitude (fixed, 2000 coordinates) shows
where the conjunction occurs on the sky. Note the longitudes are similar
every 60 years, with a slight forward drift, as expected. The separation between the planets
is next, and then comes the elongation in degrees from the Sun, with
negative being morning and positive being evening. The minus sign
changes every 60 years, as subsequent conjunctions switch from morning to evening
and back again, with exceptions when the series goes past the Sun or switches
from morning to evening as it passes through opposition.
These behavior we also expected. Then comes the series
number, and you'll notice it simply progresses 1-2-3-4-5-6 through the different
series except where there are triplets. Series 2 and 5 have similar longitudes, as
expected, as do series 1 and 4 and series 3 and 6. The last columns show whether or not a
conjunction is particularly close, if it is easy to see, and
if there is a group of three associated with an opposition. A '?' means the
conjunction will be relatively easy to see at some latitudes, but not others.
All triplet conjunctions are easy to see because they are visible in the middle of the night.
After a triplet conjunction the series moves to the evening (positive elongations),
moves to align with the Sun (decreasing values) and then to the morning sky
(negative elongations), until once again getting close enough to opposition to
have a triplet conjunction. We anticipated all of this behavior.
The closest conjunctions occur in specific longitude ranges, and all conjunctions
are within 1.3 degrees. The section below on separations
explains these aspects of the conjunctions.
As we noted above, triplets aren't too common. Within the 1200-year
interval tabulated above, there were 54 single conjunctions and 7
triplets. Some of the single conjunction events such as the ones
in 1265, 1385, 1821, and 2398 nearly had triplets.
Some plots of the six series may help clarify further:
Elongations (positive=evening, negative=morning) for all Jupiter-Saturn
conjunctions from 0 CE to 3000 CE. The spikes are triplet conjunctions
(filled symbols) that group around the opposition date for that year.
Locations in the sky (longitude for coordinate system 2000.0)
for all Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions from 0 CE to 3000 CE. X's are
morning conjunctions and open squares are evening ones. Three symbols
on top of one-another indicate a triplet. Series 1 and 4 trace nearly
exactly the same longitudes, but alternate from morning to evening
between them, as do Series 2 and 5, and Series 3 and 6. All series
progress steadily to the east (higher longitudes) with time.
So the predictions all held true, generally. All the series have a progression
from evening skies (positive elongation), to aligned with the Sun (zero elongation),
to morning events (negative elongations) and then usually one or two triplet
conjunctions visible in the middle of the night. Series 1 and 4 (and similarly
2 and 5, and 3 and 6) are related in
that they have similar longitudes, and when one is in the morning the other is
in the evening, and when one is near the Sun the other has a triplet opposition
conjunction. The graphs show that the time required for a cycle to move once around the sky is about
2600 years, exactly as predicted.
However, some features emerged here
we did not expect. We don't always get a triplet
conjunction in a series; for example, in Series 5 the single morning conjunction
on July 23, 1265 was followed by a single evening conjunction on April 8, 1385.
Both of these were close to being triplet conjunctions but the retrograde motion
just missed causing them. For example, after the July 23, 1265 event,
the planets approached to within about
68 arcminutes of one another on January 13, 1266 before separating again, but
this approach did not qualify as a conjunction because Jupiter never quite caught
up to Saturn in longitude.
On the other hand, sometimes we get more than one triplet conjunction back to back,
as happened in Series 1 in 1305/1306 and again in 1425.
The plots show that while the
average time between triplet conjunctions in a series may be around 1360 years,
the period seems to vary, and the shape isn't very periodic - it
is almost like it is dragged out in some places and compressed in others,
which explains why we might sometimes get no triplet conjunctions and sometimes
get two of them. What might cause these variations?
It's time to look at the orbital shapes in more detail. First of all, they are not
all in the same plane, something that affects mainly the separation distance,
as described in the next section. But the orbits are also ellipses and
not circles. This detail matters a lot because planets move faster when they
are closer to the Sun. Astronomers use eccentricity (e) to define how oblate
an orbit appears, with e=0 being a perfect circle and e=1 opening so much it
never closes, making a parabola. For Jupiter, e=0.0484 and Saturn has e=0.0539.
These are actually relatively large. The Earth's eccentricity is lower by
a factor of three, e=0.0167 (though it does vary over very long timescales
and can get up to 0.068 or so, in the so-called Milankovitch cycles).
If the average radius of a circular orbit is R, then its
diameter would be 2R. For an ellipse, we define 2R to be long axis of
the ellipse, so R is half that, called the semimajor axis. The Sun is located off
the center of the ellipse, such that the closest approach of the planet to
the Sun, known as perihelion, is R*(1-e) and the farthest distance, known as aphelion, R*(1+e).
If the average orbital speed is v, then when e is small like it is here,
the planet moves at v(1+e) when closest, and v(1-e) when furthest away.
Let's redraw the orbit diagram we used above, indicating the locations of
perihelion with a 'p' and aphelion with an 'a', and add a longitude scale
while we are at it. The red arcs and the curly symbols have to do with the
tilt of the orbital plane, and we'll go over that in the next section.
Orbits of the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn to scale. The Earth's orbit is in
the plane. In the red halves of their orbits, Jupiter and Saturn are above the plane,
and the black halves they are below the plane. The Omega-shaped symbol is the
ascending node, where an orbit moves from below the plane to above it, and the
U-shaped symbol is its counterpart, the descending node where planets move below the
plane. The location where a planet is closest to the Sun on its elliptical orbit
is marked with a `p', and the location where it is furthest from the Sun is
marked `a'.
Jupiter and Saturn move most rapidly when they are close to
perihelion, at longitudes 14.8 degrees and 92.5 degrees, respectively.
After 10 Jupiter periods = 118.6 years, Jupiter returns to the
same place in its orbit. The eccentricity doesn't matter one way or
another for that to hold true. Now Saturn already returned to its
starting point after 4*29.46 yrs = 117.84 yrs and so has
had 0.76 years to move ahead in its orbit. If Jupiter's orbit were circular,
it would move ahead 9.8146 degrees, and catch up to Saturn at a rate of
0.0496284 degrees/day if Saturn's orbit were circular,
overtaking it in 197 days = 0.54144 yrs. This is how
we got 118.62 + 0.54 = 119.16 years between cycles.
But now suppose Saturn is near aphelion, around longitude l = 270.
Jupiter is about halfway between aphelion and perihelion, so should
be moving near to its average speed. But Saturn's orbital motion is
now slower than average by a factor of (1-e) so it moves
ahead only (1-0.0539)*9.8146 = 9.28559 degrees, meaning that Jupiter
has less far to go to catch Saturn. Moreover, the rate Jupiter gains on Saturn
is faster because Saturn is going slower than
average: 0.083092-(1-0.0539)*0.033463 = 0.05143 degrees/day, assuming Jupiter
is going its normal speed. So it now takes 9.28559/0.05143 = 181 days, or 16 days less
time than usual for Jupiter to catch up with Saturn. Hence, the Earth
is about 16 degrees back of where it would be if the planets were moving at their
average speeds. If the Earth would normally be, say, at l = 240 degrees it is
now at 225 degrees or so. But this offset also shifts the conjunction a bit
earlier because now Jupiter appears just ahead of Saturn as seen from the Earth. Combining these
effects it is possible for the dates between adjacent conjunctions in a series
to advance as slowly as two weeks in this part of the Jupiter/Saturn orbital diagram.
The effect is largest when Saturn is at aphelion and Jupiter at perihelion,
around l = 330 degrees. Conversely, a conjunction series will move quickly
when Saturn is at perihelion and Jupiter at aphelion, around l = 150 degrees.
The position of the Jupiter/Saturn
conjunction doesn't change a whole lot from the eccentricity effects, but
the delays and speed-ups make a difference as to where the Earth is in
its orbit, and therefore how the series appears from Earth. The eccentricity
effect is evident in the plots, where the series seem drawn out for longitudes
between 270 degrees and 360 degrees, and compressed when the longitude
is between 90 degrees and 180 degrees. For example, Series 1 moves very
rapidly from a conjunction located close to the Sun in 351 CE through
the morning sky to a triplet
conjunction at opposition in 710 CE, back through the evening sky to
a conjunction near the Sun again by 1068 CE and onward to triplet conjunctions
at opposition in
1306 CE and 1425 CE. So the Cycle has moved Sun->opposition->Sun->opposition in
only nine conjunctions (1074 years). The average longitude in this period is 116 degrees.
But after 1425 CE, Series 1 gets stalled in the evening sky and takes twelve
conjunctions (1429 years) to finish just one leg, opposition->Sun,
in 2854 CE. The average longitude during this period is 322 degrees,
exactly where we expect eccentricity to make the series progress slowly.
Opposition and Triplet Conjunctions
It is getting complicated so it is time to look at some data soon. But
first we need to recognize what can happen with outer planet conjunctions
when they are observed near opposition, when the Earth is situated on
a line between the planets and the Sun. These conjunctions should be the
best ones as they will visible in the middle of the night, and the planets
are also brighter because they are closer to us.
Initial Predictions
With this setup of six conjunction series and considering triplet
conjunctions, we predict the following:
How do these predictions stack up against real data?
CONJUNCTIONS FROM 1200 CE to 2400 CE
DATE Longitude Separation Degrees Series Close? Visible Triplet?
(2000) (arcmin) From Sun (< 20') Easily?
4/16/1206 66.8 65.3 23.0 2 ?
3/4/1226 313.8 2.1 -48.6 3 Y Y
9/21/1246 209.6 62.3 13.5 4 N
7/23/1265 79.9 57.3 -58.5 5 Y
12/31/1285 318.0 10.6 19.8 6 ?
12/24/1305 220.4 71.5 -70.0 1 Y Y
4/20/1306 217.8 75.5 170.7 1 Y Y
7/19/1306 215.7 78.6 82.5 1 Y Y
6/1/1325 87.2 49.2 -0.4 2 N
3/24/1345 328.2 21.2 -52.5 3 Y
10/25/1365 226.0 72.6 -3.7 4 N
4/8/1385 94.4 43.2 58.8 5 Y
1/16/1405 332.1 29.3 18.1 6 N
2/10/1425 235.2 70.7 -104.1 1 Y Y
3/19/1425 234.4 72.4 -141.6 1 Y Y
8/24/1425 230.6 76.3 62.6 1 Y Y
7/13/1444 106.9 28.5 -15.9 2 N
4/7/1464 342.1 38.2 -52.6 3 Y
11/17/1484 240.2 68.3 -12.3 4 N
5/25/1504 113.4 18.7 33.5 5 Y ?
1/30/1524 345.8 46.1 19.1 6 N
9/17/1544 245.1 69.2 53.4 1 Y
8/25/1563 125.3 6.8 -42.1 2 Y Y
5/2/1583 355.9 52.9 -51.2 3 Y
12/17/1603 253.8 59.0 -17.6 4 N
7/16/1623 131.9 5.2 12.9 5 Y N
2/24/1643 0.1 59.3 18.8 6 N
10/17/1663 254.8 59.2 48.7 1 Y
10/23/1682 143.5 15.4 -71.8 2 Y Y Y
2/8/1683 141.1 11.6 175.8 2 Y Y Y
5/17/1683 138.9 15.8 77.5 2 Y Y Y
5/21/1702 10.8 63.4 -53.5 3 Y
1/5/1723 265.1 47.7 -23.8 4 ?
8/30/1742 150.8 27.8 -10.3 5 N
3/18/1762 15.6 69.4 14.5 6 N
11/5/1782 271.1 44.6 44.9 1 Y
7/16/1802 157.7 39.5 41.3 2 Y
6/18/1821 27.1 72.9 -62.9 3 Y
1/26/1842 281.1 32.3 -27.1 4 ?
10/20/1861 170.2 47.4 -39.5 5 Y
4/17/1881 33.0 74.5 3.8 6 N
11/28/1901 285.4 26.5 38.3 1 Y
9/8/1921 177.3 58.3 11.1 2 N
8/6/1940 45.2 71.4 -89.8 3 Y Y
10/21/1940 41.1 74.1 -165.7 3 Y Y
2/14/1940 39.9 77.4 73.3 3 Y Y
2/18/1961 295.7 13.8 -34.5 4 Y ?
1/1/1981 189.8 63.7 -91.4 5 Y Y
3/6/1981 188.3 63.3 -155.9 5 Y Y
7/25/1981 185.3 67.6 62.7 5 Y Y
5/28/2000 52.6 68.9 -14.6 6 N
12/21/2020 300.3 6.1 30.2 1 Y ?
11/4/2040 197.8 72.8 -24.6 2 ?
4/8/2060 59.6 67.5 41.7 3 Y
3/15/2080 310.8 6.0 -43.7 4 Y Y
9/18/2100 204.1 62.5 29.5 5 ?
7/15/2119 73.2 57.5 -37.8 6 Y
1/14/2140 315.1 14.5 22.7 1 Y ?
2/20/2159 215.3 71.2 -50.3 2 Y
5/28/2179 80.6 49.5 16.1 3 N
4/8/2199 325.6 25.2 -50.0 4 Y
11/1/2219 221.7 63.1 6.8 5 N
9/6/2238 93.2 39.3 -67.6 6 Y Y
1/12/2239 90.2 47.5 161.3 6 Y Y
3/22/2239 88.4 45.3 89.9 6 Y Y
2/2/2259 329.6 33.3 19.6 1 ?
2/5/2279 231.9 69.9 -80.3 2 Y Y
5/7/2279 229.9 73.8 -172.6 2 Y Y
8/31/2279 227.2 74.9 73.3 2 Y Y
7/12/2298 100.6 28.3 -6.0 3 N
4/26/2318 339.8 41.8 -51.8 4 Y
12/1/2338 237.3 66.3 -7.4 5 N
5/22/2358 107.5 18.5 50.7 6 Y Y
2/18/2378 343.7 50.5 19.4 1 N
10/2/2398 240.7 65.9 58.2 2 Y
The Orbits Aren't Circular