Solar Orbiter at perihelion, April 4, 2024
Data as of 2026-10-22
The instant
- Instant (UTC)
- April 4, 2024, 01:48:21 UTC
- Distance from the centre of the Sun
- 43,773,472 km
- Altitude above the nominal radius
- 43,077,772 km
- Speed relative to the Sun
- 68.12 km/s
Perihelion no. 8 of 15 in the series read for Solar Orbiter
This is the instant at which the distance between Solar Orbiter and the centre of the Sun is smallest on this stretch of its orbit. The Sun has no solid surface: the altitude is that distance minus the nominal radius of 695,700 km.
Before and after
- Previous perihelion
- October 7, 2023, 43,768,979 km from the centre (-4,494 km compared with this one)
- Next perihelion
- September 30, 2024, 43,769,666 km from the centre (-3,806 km compared with this one)
In Galaxy
Open Solar Orbiter at this instant, at true scale
Pages of the spacecraft and of the Sun:
How it is measured
The position of the spacecraft relative to the centre of the Sun is read from Horizons every hour across the window of its published trajectory; a local minimum is the smallest distance within 20 days on either side. Around each one the position is read again every minute, then every second, and the smallest distance is kept. The rank counts these minima from the first one of the window, so it is not necessarily the numbering of the mission. A minimum at the edge of the window is not listed, since the trajectory does not show that it rises again.
Source
NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics, Horizons System. Read on October 22, 2026.
Trajectory solution cited by Horizons: SOLO_ESA