Planet Earth reaches its, aphelion, or most distant point from the sun today. We reach this point on July 4, 2016 at 18:24
Is it cold out? Earth’s aphelion comes in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere winter.
The fact is that Earth’s orbit is almost, but not quite, circular. So our distance from the sun doesn’t change much. Today, we’re about 3 million miles (5 million km) farther from the sun than we will be six months from now. That’s in contrast to our average distance from the sun of about 93 million miles (150 million km).
The word aphelion, by the way, comes from the Greek words apo meaning away, off, apart and helios, for the Greek god of the sun. Apart from the sun. That’s us, today.
Looking for Earth’s exact distance from the sun at aphelion? It’s 94,512,904 miles (152,103,776 km). Last year, on July 6, 2015, the Earth at aphelion was a tiny bit closer, at 94,506,506 miles (152,093,481 km).
Here’s what does cause the seasons. It’s not a distance thing. We’re always farthest from the sun in early July during northern summer and closest in January during northern winter.
It’s a tilt thing. Right now, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere because the northern part of Earth is tilted most toward the sun.
Meanwhile, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere because the southern part of Earth is tilted most away from the sun.
Earth’s varying distance from the sun does affect the length of the seasons. That’s because, at our farthest from the sun, like now, Earth is traveling most slowly in its orbit. That makes summer the longest season in the Northern Hemisphere and winter the longest season on the southern half of the globe.
Conversely, winter is the shortest season in the Northern Hemisphere, and summer is the shortest in the S. Hemisphere, in each instance by nearly 5 days.
Bottom line: Planet Earth reaches its most distant point from the sun for 2016 on July 4. Astronomers call this yearly point in Earth’s orbit our aphelion.
