Solar System course of its year. A body's closest approach to the Sun is called its "perihelion", whereas its most distant point from the Sun is called its "aphelion". The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but many comets, asteroids, and Kuiper belt objects follow highly elliptical orbits. The positions of the bodies in the Solar System can be predicted using numerical models. Although the Sun dominates the system by mass, it accounts for only about 2% of the angular momentum. The planets, dominated by Jupiter, account for most of the rest of the angular momentum due to the combination of
Sun Dutch "zon", Old High German "sunna", modern German "Sonne", Old Norse "sunna", and Gothic "sunnō". All Germanic terms for the Sun stem from Proto-Germanic *"sunnōn". The Latin name for the Sun, "Sol", is used at times as another name for the Sun, but is not commonly used in everyday English. "Sol" is also used by planetary astronomers to refer to the duration of a solar day on another planet, such as Mars. The related word "solar" is the usual adjectival term used for the Sun, in terms such as solar day, solar eclipse, and Solar System. A mean Earth solar