Planets orbit stars in elipses, or elliptical orbits, which means their orbit around the star is an oval shape, as opposed to a circle. That means that at one point they will be closest to the star, and at another point they will be the farthest.
Perihelion is when the planet is closest to the star, so the perihelion date is the date of which the planet is closest to the star.
Close to or at perihelion.
Earth's perihelion happens around January 3 each year.
Obviously, being closer to the Sun, Earth will get more radiation. But the effect is not very significant.
The earth moves most rapidly in its orbit around the sun at perihelion, when it is closest to the sun. That occurs some time during the first few days of January.
If a body (like the Earth) is orbiting around the Sun, we say it is closest to the Sun at perihelion and farthest from the Sun at aphelion. In 2000, perihelion for the Earth was on January 3, 2000, and aphelion was on July 4, 2000. The Earth was 91,405,436 miles from Sun at perihelion and 94,511,989 miles from Sun at aphelion. For the year 2001, perihelion will occur on January 3rd and aphelion will occur on July 4th. The actual date for perihelion and aphelion will differ from year to year. Most importantly though, you can see that the Earth is closest to the Sun in January and farthest from the Sun in July! This may not seem right. I mean it's winter in the northern hemisphere in January when we are closest to the Sun. Shouldn't it be warmest then because we are closer? Actually, our seasons are determined by the tilt of the Earth and not by how close the Earth is to the Sun. A few more numbers for you...the circumference of the Earth is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km) at the equator. If you were to measure from the north pole to the south pole and back to the north pole, the circumference would be a bit shorter. That is because the Earth bulges a little bit around its waist (the equator). This "equatorial bulge" is caused by the Earth's spin - try spinning a water balloon as you toss it up into the air to see how this works. Tidal forces caused by the pull of gravity from the Sun and Moon also add a little to this bulge. So the pole to pole circumference is 24,859.82 miles (40,008 km). Finally, the gravitational pull between the Earth and Sun causes the Earth to travel around, or "orbit", the Sun at a velocity of 29.8 km/sec. At the same time, the Earth also turns on its axis causing the daily cycle of day and night. This "rotational velocity" is approximately .47 km/sec. That means that at the same time we're hurtling through space at nearly 67,000 mph, we're also spinning around in circles at over 1000 mph! Whew! Almost makes you dizzy, doesn't it?
Perihelion.
When an object orbiting the Sun is at its closest distance to the Sun, it is said to be in perihelion.
Perihelion is the point in a planet's orbit when it is nearest to the sun. Apehelion is when it's furthest from the sun. We would not be coldest at perihelion.
At perihelion Venus is about:107,476,259 km (66,782,651.2 miles) (0.71843270 AU)
No. "Perihelion" is the point in the orbit of any object that revolves around the sunwhere the object is closest to the sun.The earth was at its perihelion on January 4, 2009.
The closest point to the Sun in a planet's orbit is called perihelion. The furthest point is called aphelion. Phil
Earth reaches the point in its orbit called 'perihelion' early in January.
It's the point when the Saturn is closest to the sun. I do not sure of when the occasion occurs, but I do know that every planet has one.
Pluto's perihelion distance is about 4.4 billion kilometers, while its aphelion distance is about 7.4 billion kilometers from the Sun. So, Pluto is closer to the Sun at perihelion and farther away at aphelion.
perihelion
740,742,600 km
January 3, 2010 was the date of the "most recent" perihelion. Hopefully, not the "last" one.