As indicated by “Astronomical Almanac for 2025”, published by the Polish Astronomical Society, on Thursday, July 3 at 21.54 Central European Summer Time, our space home will be at the point of its orbit most distant from the sun. The distance will then be 152.089 million km. Our planet was closest to the sun this year on January 4, at a distance of 147 103 million km.
The farthest point is called by Aphelium astronomers, and the nearest – perihelium.
The difference in the angular size of the sun shield between these two moments of the year is about one minute of the bow, due to an average of about 32 minutes of the arch, which the sun has in the sky.
It may seem paradoxical to some, but the earth is the furthest from the sun when summer is in our country and the closest to the sun when winter is in Poland. This clearly shows that in the case of our planet, the existence of the seasons results from factors other than the distance from the sun.
Change of seasons. What do they result from?
The average distance of the Earth from the sun is 149 598 million kilometers. As you can see from the above numbers, the orbit of our planet does not differ much from the circle and is a little flattened ellipse.
So where do the seasons on earth come from? They result from the inclination of the axis of the rotation of our planet relative to the Orbit plane, combined with traffic in orbit around the sun. The slope is just over 23.4 degrees. Due to this slope at different periods of the year, the maximum height of the sun in the sky during the day above a given area changes. This results in changes in the lighting conditions and the proportion between day and night. The consequence is changes in temperature, weather and preservation of plants and animals.
Next year, Earth will pass through Aphelium of its orbit three days later than this year (July 6, 2026).
