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This is a list of Solar System objects by greatest aphelion or the greatest distance from the Sun that the orbit takes it. For the purposes of this list it is implied that the object is orbiting the Sun in a two-body solution without influence of the planets or passing stars. The aphelion can change significantly due to the gravitational influence of planets and other stars. Most of these objects are comets on a calculated path and may not be directly observable.
Contents
- Comets with greatest aphelion 2 body heliocentric
- Distant periodic comets with well known aphelion
- Distant comets with long observation arcs andor barycentric
- Minor planets
- TNOs with an aphelion larger than 200 AU
- TNOs with an aphelion between 100 and 200 AU
- References
The maximum extent of the region in which the Sun's gravitational field is dominant, the Hill sphere), may extend to 230,000 astronomical units (3.6 light-years) as calculated in the 1960s. But any comet currently more than about 150,000 AU (2 ly) from the Sun can be considered lost to the interstellar medium. The nearest known star is Proxima Centauri at 271,000 AU which is 4.22 light years, followed by Alpha Centauri at about 4.35 light years away according to NASA.
Comets are thought to orbit the Sun at great distances, but then be perturbed by passing stars and the galactic tides. As they come into or leave the inner Solar System they may have their orbit changed by the planets, or alternatively be ejected from the Solar System. It is also possible they may collide with the Sun or a planet.
Comets with greatest aphelion (2 body heliocentric)
There can be considerable variation for highly eccentric orbits based on the epoch (date) and whether you calculate a heliocentric or barycentric solution. The aphelion point for heliocentric solutions can be highly inaccurate for objects with an orbital eccentricity approaching 1 especially when values are calculated while the object is near perihelion and has not left the planetary region of the Solar System. Barycentric solutions are more accurate because they account for the combined gravity of the Sun and the most massive planet Jupiter.
Distant periodic comets with well-known aphelion
These can also change significantly such as if perturbed by Jupiter
Distant comets with long observation arcs and/or barycentric
Examples of comets with a more well determined orbit. Comets are extremely small relative to other bodies and hard to observe once they stop outgassing (see Coma (cometary)). Because they are typically discovered close to the Sun, it will take some time even thousands of years for them to actually travel out to great distances. The Whipple proposal might be able to detect Oort cloud objects at great distances, but probably not a particular object.
Minor planets
A large number of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) – minor planets orbiting beyond the orbit of Neptune – have been discovered in recent years. Many TNOs have orbits with an aphelion (farthest distance to the Sun) far beyond Neptune's orbit at 30.1 AU. Some of these TNOs with an extreme aphelion are detached objects such as 2010 GB174, which always reside in the outermost region of the Solar System, while for other TNOs, the extreme aphelion is due to an exceptionally high eccentricity such as for 2005 VX3, which orbits the Sun at a distance between 4.1 (closer than Jupiter) and 3080 AU (a hundred times farther from the Sun than Neptune). The following is a list of TNOs with the largest aphelion in descending order.
TNOs with an aphelion larger than 200 AU
The following group of bodies have orbits with an aphelion above 200 AU.
TNOs with an aphelion between 100 and 200 AU
The following group of bodies have orbits with an aphelion between 100 and 200 AU.