New Delhi: Earth will be the farthest from the Sun today i.e on 4 July at 05:24 pm GMT ( 09:54 PM IST).
This astronomical event called the 'aphelion', happens every year, but the date and time changes.
This phenomenon wherein the distance between the two celestial bodies which is over 94 million miles (15 crore kilometers) always falls around July 4.
And opposite to the 'aphelion', the Earth's elliptical orbit suggests that each year, at some point of time, around January 4, when the planet Earth comes closest to the Sun, it is called the ‘perihelion’.
The distance of the Earth from the Sun doesn’t cause the seasons as Earth’s aphelion comes in the midst of Northern Hemisphere summer and Southern Hemisphere winter.
The Earth’s orbit is not a perfect circle; instead, it’s elliptical. So, in its elliptical orbit around the Sun, the Earth will have points when it is closest and farthest from the Sun. An aphelion is the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet at which it is farthest from the Sun.
In the summer, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, so we get more direct rays. Despite the farther distance from the Sun, the Earth is warmer in the summer because of that more direct sunlight. The opposite is true in the winter — the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, so the top half of the Earth is typically colder.
The Earth will be at its next perihelion around January 4, 2017, when our planet will be exactly 91,404,322 miles from the Sun.
And again with this Earth will be closer to the Sun in coming January with days becoming shorter, and we’ll have much less direct sunlight.
