Earth Will Be Farthest From Sun On July 6. Here's What It Means

Planet Earth will hit its greatest distance from the Sun on July 6 at 17:30 UTC (12:30 PM CDT). It occurs annually and is called aphelion, a term that originated from two Greek words, apo meaning "away" and helios for "sun".

How far away is it?

According to Science Daily, Earth will be 94.5 million miles (152.1 million km) from the Sun at aphelion. That's about 3.1 million miles (5 million km) farther than when we were closest to the Sun in early January, at perihelion.

The distance varies by only about 3% over the year because Earth's orbit is slightly oval-shaped, not a perfect circle.

For comparison, Earth's average distance from the Sun is roughly 93 million miles (150 million km), or 1 astronomical unit (AU). At aphelion, we're at 1.0166 AU, while at perihelion in January, we were at 0.98 AU.

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Does this make Earth cooler?

Not really. Despite being farthest from the Sun, the Northern Hemisphere is in the middle of summer. In fact, aphelion always falls in early July, while perihelion occurs in early January.

That's because seasons are caused by Earth's 23.5-degree axial tilt, not our distance from the Sun. In July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, so sunlight strikes more directly and days are longer.

The more direct rays at the summer solstice bring about three times as much heat to mid-northern latitudes as the slanting rays at the winter solstice.

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According to NASA, northern summer is actually 2-3 days longer than southern summer, giving the Sun more time to heat the northern continents.

"Earth revolves in orbit around the Sun in 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes with reference to the stars, at a speed ranging from 29.29 to 30.29 km/s. The 6 hours, 9 minutes add up to about an extra day every fourth year, which is designated a leap year, with the extra day added as February 29th," NASA wrote while explaining Earth's revolution.

"Earth's orbit is elliptical and reaches its closest approach to the Sun, a perihelion of 147,090,000 km, on about January fourth of each year. Aphelion comes six months later at 152,100,000 km."

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Can you see the difference?

At aphelion, the Sun appears about 3.4% to 3.6% smaller in the sky than it does at perihelion. The change is too small to notice with the naked eye; also, a person should never look at the Sun without proper filters. As per the report, sunlight at aphelion is also about 7% less intense than at perihelion.