Aphelion Day 2019: Earth Is Farthest from the Sun Today

[Judi Lynn]

By Hanneke Weitering 16 hours ago

Happy Aphelion Day! Earth is farther from the sun today (July 4) than at any other time of the year.

The exact moment of aphelion happens at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT), when Earth will be 94,511,180 miles (152.1 million kilometers) away from the sun. That's more than 1.5 million miles (2.5 million km) farther than the planet's average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) — and 3 million miles (5 million km) farther away than it is at perihelion, or the shortest distance from the sun, which happened on Jan. 3.

When Earth orbits the sun, it doesn't travel in a perfect circle. Rather, its orbit is elliptical, or oval-shaped, with the sun situated about 1.5 million miles (2.5 million km) off-center. [25 Weirdest Facts About the Solar System]



On Thursday, July 4, Earth will reach aphelion, its maximum distance from the sun for this year. The aphelion distance of 94,511,180 miles (152.1 million km) is 1.67% farther from the sun than the mean Earth-sun separation of 92,955,807.3 miles (149,597,870.7 km), which is also defined to be 1 Astronomical Unit (1 AU). Earth's perihelion (minimum distance from the sun) will occur on January 4.

(Image credit: Starry Night)

Our planet reaches aphelion only once a year, and the event typically falls approximately 14 days after the June solstice, which marks the first day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter for the Southern Hemisphere. Similarly, perihelion happens two weeks after the December solstice.

More:
https://www.space.com/41093-earth-at-aphelion-guide.html

[customerserviceguy]

1. Seemed pretty damned close today! n/t