Mercury at aphelion July 2026: All you need to know

Mercury at aphelion in July 2026

When it occurs: Mercury will reach aphelion—the farthest point from the sun in its elliptical orbit—on July 1, 2026, at 10:00 UTC (6:00 a.m. EDT).

Meaning: The word aphelion comes from Ancient Greek, where apo means “away from” and helios means “sun,” more specifically the sun god in Greek mythology.

Distance from the sun: Mercury has the most elliptical orbit of all the planets in our solar system, with an eccentricity of 0.206. As a result, its distance from the sun varies significantly between its aphelion and perihelion.

At aphelion on July 1, 2026, Mercury will be 0.46668 AU (about 69.8 million km) from the sun. The average distance between the sun and Mercury is about 0.387 AU or 57.9 million km.

Distance from Earth: At aphelion on July 1, 2026, Mercury will be 0.61384 AU (91.8 million km) from Earth.

Speed at aphelion: According to Kepler’s second law of planetary motion, planets travel slower when they are farther away from the sun (near aphelion).

At aphelion, Mercury travels at its slowest speed—about 38.9 km/s, or 140,000 km/h.

Effect on season: Mercury doesn’t have seasons like Earth because its axial tilt is almost zero (about 0.01°). Instead, it experiences so-called “thermal seasons” due to its highly elliptical orbit.

Mercury gets colder when it reaches aphelion because its aphelion is about 1.5 times farther from the sun than its perihelion.

How often does Mercury reach aphelion?

Mercury takes about 88 days to orbit the sun, so it reaches aphelion once every 88 days. This interval is called Mercury’s sidereal period.

Mercury at aphelion in 2026

Here are the dates of aphelion of Mercury in 2026:

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