obliquity

SECTION 17. Planetary Obliquity To Orbit.

In this section, you can see that the Three Low Obliquity Planets are:- Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. Their values for “Obliquity to Orbit” are as follows:- Mercury 0.5 degrees, and Jupiter 3,12 degrees, and Venus 177.4 degrees. The value for Venus may not seem to be a low value. However, it is 2.6 degrees from180 degrees. In other words, Venus has an “Obliquity to Orbit” of 2.6 degrees, only Venus is “upside down”. The term “Obliquity to Orbit” refers to the angle of the planet’s equator to its orbital plane, where the equator is at right angles to the axis of rotation.

To verify these angles, here is a scan from The Planetary Scientist’s Companion, by Katherina Lodders, and Bruce Fegley (Professor of Planetary Sciences at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri), published by Oxford University Press, 1998, Table 2.5