|
Comets Although Comet Kohoutek turned out to be a dud visually, it does hold a few records. Comet Kohoutek has an orbital eccentricity of 0.9993, the highest of any known astronomical body. Its perihelion is 37,600,000 km, just inside Mercury's orbit. However, its aphelion is 538 billion kilometers, 1/18 of a light year from the Sun. It definitely comes from the Oort Cloud. Its aphelion is 75 times Pluto's distance, and it takes 216,500 years to complete just one turn around the Sun. |