Anomalous Year

Anomalous Year is the interval that elapses between two successive passages of the earth through its perihelion, or point of nearest approach to the sun. If the earth's orbit had a fixed position in space, this period would correspond with that of a sidereal revolution, or the time the earth takes after leaving any point of the heavens to return to it again; but the disturbing influence of the other planets causes the perihelion to advance slowly (11^h 8^m annually) in the direction of the earth's motion; so that the anomalous year is longer (4 minutes 39 seconds) than the sidereal. The length of the anomalous year is therefore 365 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, 49 seconds.