Aphelio: understand why the Earth is furthest from the Sun this Friday

A Earth reaches its furthest distance from the Sun this Friday (5)the call aphelion.

Like all the planets in the solar system, the Earth rotates around the Sun in an elliptical path, that is, it is not a perfect circle, but an oval path. This makes us closer or further from the Sun throughout the year.

Our planet passes through the closest point to the Sun — the perihelion — in January, and reaches its maximum distance from the star in July.

However, this difference is not very big, when compared to other planets, Earth’s orbit is almost circular. Aphelion and perihelion have a difference of less than 2% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun along its trajectory.

When reaching its furthest point this Friday, the planet is at a distance of about 152.6 million kilometers from the Sun, compared to 147.5 million kilometers at its closest point.

Does the distance from the Sun influence Earth’s climate?

Although aphelion occurs during our winter in the Southern Hemisphere, the greater distance from the Sun has little to do with the drops in temperature during this period — our neighbors in the Northern Hemisphere, in fact, are experiencing the height of summer right now.

What determines the difference in seasons and temperatures is, in fact, the tilt of the Earth’s axis at around 23.5°.

In other words, winter in the South (and summer in the North) occurs because the North Pole of our planet is tilted towards the Sun, causing the sun’s rays to fall more directly on the planet’s Northern Hemisphere and less directly on the Southern Hemisphere.

During our summer, the opposite happens: the South Pole is closer to the Sun and the sun’s rays fall more directly on the Southern Hemisphere.

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*With information from CNN International