The Earth will be at the nearest point in its orbit around the Sun (perihelion) today morning at 10:47 (Doha local time).
At this time, Earth will be approximately 147 million kilometres away from Sun’s centre; while it was at 152 million kilometres away from Sun’s centre on July 4, 2019. So the Sun appears larger in the sky than at any other time of year, Qatar Calendar house (QCH) said in a statement.
The astronomer expert at QCH, Dr. Beshir Marzouk, said Earth (and all planets) moves in its orbit around Sun on Ellipse (elliptical) orbit, so the distance between Earth and the Sun’s centre varies (when the Earth arrives Perihelion and Aphelion points) by approximately 3 percent. Moreover, the average distance between Earth and Sun is called Astronomical Unite (AU), where one AU equals 149.7 million kilometres approximately.
As known, Earth reaches perihelion point once in a year during January, also it arrives at aphelion one time a year during July. Moreover, Earth was at perihelion last time on Thursday, January 3, 2019, while will be at perihelion next time on January 2, 2021.
Earth’s high and low temperature does not depend on Earth’s distance from the Sun as the Earth at the farthest point from Sun during summer, while the Earth at the nearest point from Sun during winter. The temperature in summer is higher than winter because of the tilting of Sun’s ray on the earth.
During the winter, the Sun’s rays hit the Earth at an extreme angle (Sun’s ray is tilting on the northern hemisphere), and the days are very short, while during summer the Sun’s rays hit the Earth at a more direct angle (vertical) than during winter, and also because of the days are much longer than the nights during the summer on northern hemisphere, Dr. Marzouk added.
The planet ‘Earth’ is the third planet from the Sun.