See title.
I was reading an article about the hypothetical Planet 9. And it got me wondering what body takes the longest time to orbit the sun. As far as planets go I think Neptune is the answer but surely there are comets and such that take longer.
So, what known object takes the longest to orbit the sun?
Bonus points… what are the chances that there is a Planet 9?
The longest known comet period I think is still Hyakutake, which has a period of ~70,000 years.
Well Pluto has a longer orbital period then Neptune, IIRC it has a orbital resonance of 3:2 with Neptune.
The answer to your question is so far as we know is the galactic center which is a black hole. As the sun orbits it, it also orbits the sun. Since the BH is a singularity the orbit of the BH is also outside the singularity.
Also yes there is a planet 9, it’s Pluto, time is just a dimension after all.
As far as dwarf planets and larger Sedna has an orbital period of 11,400 years.
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Asteroids
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
The Check in the Mail
Comet West has an unresolved period that could be anywhere from a quarter million years to 6.5 million.
BTW, an Oort cloud object with a circular orbit 100,000 AU out (to pick a round figure) would have an orbital period of around 45 million years.
For non-comets, it’s currently 2015 KG[sub]163[/sub], which has a period of 23,094 years.
Actually, I did my math wrong–the above theoretical Oort cloud object would have a period around 90 million years.
The orbital periods of comets aren’t actually well-defined. Periods only make sense for things that are periodic. But when a comet passes through the inner Solar System, its orbit will be changed slightly, and what’s a slight change in the inner system will add up to a very significant change in the outer portions of its orbit. It’s quite possible to have, say, an object that comes through the inner system the first time, then comes back again 7,000 years later, then again 4,000 years after that, and then gets put on an escape orbit that’ll never come back again at all.
What body has the longest path around the sun?
Uh, yo mamma?
Jimmy Hoffa would have been my guess.
Based on pics during its close approach in the 70’s I believe it broke up.
[dupe]
When I was a kid, “they” said Comet Kohoutek would be back in 250,000 years. Does it really take that long to pick up another naked space vampiress?
Wikipedia’s article on near-parabolic comets lists one discovered by PANSTARRS, C/2012 S4, with a period of 130,000,000 years.
It last visited in 2013. Is it too early too stock up on supplies for the return party?
Anyhow, there’s a Wikipedia page on this one which is difficult to parse regarding orbital period. Perturbations are a bitch.