(ORDO NEWS) — The northern hemisphere remains in the grip of winter. Therefore, some may be surprised to learn that our planet today is actually at the closest point to the Sun in an entire year – a phenomenon known as perihelion.
What is perihelion?
At perihelion, Earth will be about 146 million kilometers from our star.
Perihelion is the exact period when the Earth’s orbit approaches its closest point to a star in our solar system.
The word “perihelion” comes from the Greek words “peri” which means “near”, and “helios” which means “the sun”.
On Saturday, January 2, at 15.01 GMT, our world is exactly 147,093,162 million km from the Sun.
This is about three percent less than the average, with the result that the Earth receives significantly more radiation in the form of heat from the Sun.
As a result, the Sun will also be slightly larger in our sky.
US Space Agency NASA: “The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is called the Astronomical Unit [AU], but since our orbit is not a perfect circle, this means that sometimes we are a little closer to the Sun and sometimes further away.
“In fact, our distance from the Sun changes by about five million kilometers throughout the year. This is almost 13 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.”
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