Friday, July 5, 2013

Today is the day when the Earth is farthest from the Sun - La Vanguardia

Madrid. (EFE). – Today Friday is the day in which the Earth is more away the Sun , what is known as astronomy aphelion. Earth’s orbit around the Sun “is not circular, but describes an ellipse” said astronomer EFE Madrid Planetarium monitor Cesar Gonzalez, so there is a time when the balloon is a minimum distance of the sun (perihelion ) and another that is at the maximum distance (aphelion ).

About 2 and January 3 is when the Earth is closest to the Sun and perihelion occurs while on the 4th and 5th of July is when it is farthest. “It may seem strange that the day we are farther from the Sun is a summer day, but stations have nothing to do with distance, but with the tilt of Earth’s rotation,” said Gonzalez, who added it also is related to the solstice.

However, Earth’s orbit is an ellipse with an eccentricity very low, almost a circle, so that the difference in distance between the maximum and minimum time proximity represents less than 3% in relative terms and is imperceptible.

Today, at aphelion, the Earth is 152,097,984 miles from the sun, while at perihelion, which occurred on January 2, the distance to the Sun was 147 097 984 kilometers, according to a note Madrid Planetarium.

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