Hi it's me again. I realize that my last question didn't make much sense, so I will try to explain it again. Her it goes.....
A long time ago the Mayans predicted that it took so many days( years even) for the sun to orbit the jupiter. This was without any sort of technology at all. Recently NASA was able to prove them wrong by saying that they were a couple of points (ie. 1.1 instead of 1)Does anyone know what the exact calculations were? Thanks to all who answer! :)
And I hope that this makes more sense!!! :P
Thanks
The sun does not orbit Jupieter. Jupiter orbits the sun.
When a planet such as Jupiter returns to the same point in the sky, relative to the star background, its exact location will also be affected by the Earth's location at that time. It can also be above or below the ecliptic plane, and so will not return to exactly the same stellar location. This can lead to 10% errors in estimating when it has made a complete revolution, unless astronomical spherical-geometry calculations are made that take the Earth's poistion into account.