In early January, during winter in the northern hemisphere, summer in the south, earth is at perihelion, closest to the sun. This is the opposite of aphelion, which is when the orbit of the Earth is farthest from the sun.
Perihelion relates to a planets position in it's orbit around the Sun.
The Sun therefore cannot have a perihelion, unless you define it against the galactic centre and that is another question entirely.
The point in Earth's orbit where it is furthest from the sun is called the Aphelion and occurs in the first week of July. In 2009 the aphelion was at 2 am on July 4th ; in 2010 it will be at 11 am on July 6th
At aphelion, the distance between the Earth and the Sun is 152,097,701 km (1.0167103335 AU).
Aphelion is the point of greatest distance of the elliptical orbit of the Earth from the Sun.
In the Northern hemisphere it is winter (cold), in the Southern hemisphere it is summer (hot). The closest point is around 4 January each year, furthest is around July 4.
The angle of the Earth's axis relative to the Sun determines the seasons, while the variance of the distance from the Sun has less effect. This is why the seasons are opposite in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. When the north pole is angled towards the Sun the south pole is angled away and vice versa.
This year (2010) it was on 3 Jan. Next year (2011) it will be on 3 Jan as well, though a couple hours later.
Note that the Earth's Anomalistic year, the year with respect to the Earth's orbital apsides (aphelion and perihelion), is not the same length as the tropical year we normally use. It is 365.259 635 864 days long, rather than 365.242 189 67.
The earth passed aphelion ... the point in its orbit that is farthest from the sun ...
in the evening of July 3 this year. (0200 GMT 7-4-09).
That depends not so much on aphelion vs. perihelion, but whether Venus and Earth are on the same side or on opposite sides of the Sun.
2012 December 24 : d
No.
Perihelion.
Perihelion is when the Earth is closest to the sun.
The point at which Earth is closest to the the Sun is called perihelion. Even though Earth is close to the Sun then, the Northern hemisphere experiences winter then. This is because the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun at perihelion.
no
January 3, 2010 was the date of the "most recent" perihelion. Hopefully, not the "last" one.
Well the date it was the last time was acually March,22,1470
I think the most recent was actually January 4, 2001 at 5am eastern standard time.
No.
Earth reaches its perihelion on January 3rd. On this date it is at its closest to the Sun.
perihelion
Earth reaches the point in its orbit called 'perihelion' early in January.
At the moment (this date changes over long periods due to precession and Milankovitch cycles), Earth's perihelion (closest point to the sun in an elliptical orbit) occurs around January 3rd, and the aphelion (furthest point from the sun in an elliptical orbit) around July 4th. The changing Earth-Sun distance results in an increase of about 6.9% in solar energy reaching the Earth at perihelion relative to aphelion.
TO THE NORTH
Perihelion.
Perihelion
perihelion