Inferior and superior planets the orbit of Earth. These terms were originally used in the geocentric cosmology of Claudius Ptolemy to differentiate as inferior those planets (Mercury and Venus) whose epicycle remained co-linear with the Earth and Sun, and as superior those planets (Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) that did not. In the 16th century, the terms were modified by Copernicus, who rejected Ptolemy's geocentric model, to distinguish a planet's orbit's size in relation to the Earth's. When Earth is stated or assumed to be the reference point: The terms are sometimes used more generally; for example, Earth is an inferior planet relative to Mars.
Newcomb's Tables of the Sun adopted by the General Assembly of the IAU at the 1976 and 1979 meetings." The new fundamental ephemeris was prepared by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and named DE200/LE200. It uses numerical integration. Newcomb's Tables of the Sun Newcomb's "Tables of the Sun" is the short title and running head of a work by the American astronomer and mathematician Simon Newcomb entitled "Tables of the Motion of the Earth on its Axis and Around the Sun" on pages 1–169 of "Tables of the Four Inner Planets" (1895), volume VI of the serial publication "Astronomical Papers Prepared for the Use of the