Warm enough for you?
Posted in Current Events, General on January 15th, 2010 by Peter LipscombOn January 3rd we reached perihelion in our orbit around the Sun. Perihelion marks the point in Earth’s orbit where our planet is nearest to the Sun. Every year we reach perihelion during the first days of January. Our perihelion distance is about 2 million miles closer to the Sun than our average distance of 93 million miles.
Because Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not circular but elliptical, we are closer or farther away from the Sun at the extreme points of the ellipse. Perihelion’s opposite is known as aphelion and happens each year around the Fourth of July. Because Earth’s elliptical orbit is not as out-of-round, or eccentric, as the orbit of Mars, the effect on us is very subtle.
