Earth farthest from the sun on July 6

Planet Earth reaches a milestone today, as it swings out to aphelion, its most distant point from the sun. We reach this point on July 6, 2018, at 10:17 pm IST.

Is it hot outside for you on your part of Earth right now? Or cold out? Earth’s aphelion comes in the midst of Northern Hemisphere summer and Southern Hemisphere winter. That should tell you that our distance from the sun doesn’t cause the seasons.

This illustration greatly exaggerates the eccentricity – or oblongness – of Earth’s orbit, but you get the idea.

The fact is, Earth’s orbit is almost, but not quite, circular. So our distance from the sun doesn’t change much. Today, we’re about 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 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 152,095,566 km. Last year, on July 3, 2017, the Earth at aphelion was a tiny bit closer, at 152,092,504 km.

Source - EarthSky.org