Solar Orbiter at perihelion, February 10, 2021

Instant (UTC)

February 10, 2021, 09:43:26 UTC

Distance from the centre of the Sun

73,980,861 km

Altitude above the nominal radius

73,285,161 km

Speed relative to the Sun

48.59 km/s

Perihelion no. 2 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.

Previous perihelion

June 15, 2020, 77,170,642 km from the centre (+3,189,781 km compared with this one)

Next perihelion

September 12, 2021, 87,751,138 km from the centre (+13,770,277 km compared with this one)

Open Solar Orbiter at this instant, at true scale

Pages of the spacecraft and of the Sun:

• Solar Orbiter
• Sun

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.

NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics, Horizons System. Read on October 22, 2026.

Trajectory solution cited by Horizons: SOLO_ESA

All perihelia