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Do the orbits of asteroids, comets and planets have a perihelion and an aphelion?

Answer 1

Planets, asteroids and comets are star-orbiters. The orbits are ellipses having a focus at the center of the parent star. So, the distance from the star attains mini/max - perihelion/aphelion.

The parameter known as eccentricity e, which ranges from 0 to 1, reveals the distortion of an ellipse from a circle. The orbit of Mercury has the highest e, approximately 0.21; that of Neptune and Venus has the lowest e, approximately 0.01; comets' orbits are referred to as near-parabolic because their e is on the higher side; for a parabola, e = 1. There is no (never to return) parabolic orbit.

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Answer 2

Leah Abbate

Indeed, the perihelion, or closest point to the Sun, and aphelion, or furthest point from the Sun, are features of the orbits of planets, comets, and asteroids.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.