The Planetary Orbit

The orbits of the inner planets. From

the center out we have the Sun,
Mercury, Venus and the Earth, then
Mars and Jupiter. All the planets are
orbiting in a counter-clockwise
direction, as seen in this view from the
North Ecliptic Polar direction. Note
that Jupiter, Venus and the Earth have
orbits which are nearly centered on
the Sun, while Mercury and Mars'
orbits are not centered on the Sun.
Also, the inner planets' orbits are
fairly evenly spaced, but there is a
gigantic step outward from Mars to
Jupiter.
The "curtate" orbits of the outer planets (that is, as projected onto the Earth's
orbital plane by looking southward from the direction of the North Ecliptic
Pole). This projection makes the perihelion distance of Pluto look smaller than
it is, because of the large tilt of its orbit; but it does still cross inside the orbit of
Neptune near perihelion. The orbit of Comet Halley (P/1) is also shown. All the
planets are orbiting the Sun in a counter-clockwise manner as viewed here, but
Comet Halley is orbiting in the opposite direction, with retrograde revolution.
The orbits of Neptune and Pluto, showing Pluto's position in various years. The
orbit of Pluto has been rotated so that it lies in the same plane as Neptune's
orbit. Where it appears to cross Neptune's orbit, it is actually hundreds of
millions of miles above it.
A comparison of Pluto's orbit to a circle offset from the Sun. Even with an
eccentricity of 25% the orbit of Pluto has a major axis less than 1.6% larger, and
a minor axis less than 1.6% smaller, than a circle of the same overall size. Only
very eccentric orbits such as those of comets are noticeably elongated.
Relative to the Earth's orbit, both Pluto and Neptune's orbits are tilted upward
on the right side of this diagram. For each planet the line of nodes (the line
through the Sun where the planet's orbit intersects our orbit) is shown. Both
ascending nodes (where the planet moves upwards through the orbital plane of
the Earth) are at the bottom, but Pluto's orbit is tilted 17 degrees upward, and
Neptune's less than 2 degrees. As a result Pluto's orbit is tilted upward by just
over 15 degrees relative to Neptune's, along a line that would be nearly vertical
in this diagram, putting Pluto nearly at its highest point relative to Neptune's
orbit in the early 1980's.