An heliostationary orbit is an heliocentric orbit of approximately 24,360,000 km radius (0.162 84 AU, a little less than half of Mercury's orbital radius), with an eccentricity of zero and an inclination (to the Sun's equator) of zero. Its distinguishing characteristic is that a body in such an orbit has a period of revolution roughly equal to the Sun's equatorial period of rotation and appears to continuously hover above the same spot of the Sun's surface. A solar observation probe could be placed on such an orbit in the near future.