How to Use aphelion in a Sentence

aphelion

noun
Definition of aphelionnext
  • These are from aphelion and perihelion in 2005, but the scale is always about the same every year.
    — Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 5 July 2012
  • Image On Friday, Earth will swing toward the outermost point in its orbit, known as aphelion.
    — Shannon Hall, New York Times, 5 July 2018
  • The closest of these run-ins occurs when Earth reaches aphelion, or its farthest point from the sun, and when Mars reaches perihelion, its closest point to the sun.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 5 Oct. 2020
  • That moment, called aphelion, will occur when the distance between the two celestial bodies stretches to more than 94.5 million miles.
    — NBC News, 5 Jan. 2022
  • Earth reaches aphelion July 3, the most distant spot on its imperfect, annual orbit around the sun.
    — Blaine P. Friedlander Jr., Washington Post, 1 July 2017
  • Apart from Mercury, no other natural object in our solar system is known to have a smaller aphelion—the point at which an orbiting body is farthest from the sun.
    — Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Jan. 2020
  • Each year, during wintertime in the northern hemisphere, the Earth reaches its closest point to the sun, or perihelion, and during the northern hemisphere summer the Earth hits the farthest point from the sun, or aphelion.
    — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 18 Aug. 2017
  • Over the past centuries, Mars’ orbit has been getting more and more elongated, carrying the planet even nearer to the sun at perihelion and even farther away at aphelion.
    — Dave Epstein, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2018
  • Mars’ orbit is more elliptical than Earth’s, so the difference between perihelion and aphelion is greater.
    — Dave Epstein, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2018
  • Though perihelion occurs during winter in the Northern Hemisphere and aphelion occurs during summer, Earth's elliptical orbit around the sun does not cause the seasons.
    — NBC News, 5 Jan. 2022
  • Confirming the rocket firing, SpaceX released initial data indicating the Roadster was headed for an elliptical orbit around the sun with a high point, or aphelion, out in the asteroid belt, well beyond the orbit of Mars.
    — William Harwood, CBS News, 7 Feb. 2018
  • Officially, aphelion occurs at 6:27 p.m. EDT on July 5.
    — Eric MacK, Forbes, 5 July 2021
  • Perihelion -- closest approach -- happens in early January, and aphelion six months later.
    — Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 4 July 2011

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'aphelion.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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