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You can look through a list of the planets' orbits to see which one has the smallest eccentricity, and the answer is Venus, 0.006787.

But if you are an astronomer wanting to find it out by observing the planets in the sky, you need to have five accurate positions for each planet, spaced out across a good fraction of the orbit, and then you can calculate the 'elements' of the orbit. One of the elements is the eccentricity.

The eccentricity and the semimajor axis determine the shape and size of the orbit. Then there is the longitude of perihelion, which sets the orientation of the major axis of the ellipse. Two more are the inclination of the plane of the orbit to the plane of the Earth's orbit, and then the longitude of the ascending node, which defines the line of intersection of the two planes. Finally the longitude at the Epoch and the date of the Epoch are required because they set the starting conditions for the model.

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Q: How can you tell which planet has the most circular orbit?
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The planet will orbit the sun, while moons orbit the planet.


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I can tell you that it is not a circle.


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