05 January 2012

Sun closest to Earth on January 5th

On January 5th the earth will be closest to the Sun. During its orbit around the Sun, the earth does not follow a circular path, it deviates a little with an eccentricity 0.0167. This deviation is very small making the distance of earth-sun during the perihelion and aphelion very small. The difference will be close to 3 percent. Perihelion is when a celestial body is closest to the Sun and Aphelion is when the celestial body is farthest from Sun.



On January 5th earth will be at a perihelion distance of 147 million (Km) and at this distance the Sun's angular diameter will be 32.5 minutes of arc. The orbital velocity of earth during the perihelion will be close to 109044 km/hr.

We can compare this with Aphelion distance of earth, the maximum distance 152 million (Km). The angular diameter at this maximum distance will be 31.45 minutes of arc. The orbital velocity at this distance will be 105444 km/hr.

Earth will be at Aphelion on 5th July this year.

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