Earth Will Be At Its Closest Point To Sun In Its Orbit This Weekend

Earth’s elliptical orbit around the Sun brings it closest to the star at one point during its revolution.?

The Planetary Society of India (PSI) has now confirmed that this moment will occur on Saturday evening as the planet will be at its closest point to the Sun.

(Representative Image: M. Weiss)

PSI Director N Sri Raghunandan Kumar in a?release?explained about the Earth’s ‘Perihelion’. Perihelion is the point in an orbit of an object wherein it is closest to the body it revolves around. The point when it is farthest is known as the Aphelion.

Kumar said that planet Earth will reach its Perihelion at 7.27 pm on Saturday. At the time, the planet will be at a distance of 0.9832571 AU i.e. at 14,70,93,168 km?from the Sun.

PSI also shared the date and time of the Aphelion, which is due on July 6, 2021 at 3:46 a.m. (IST). At the time, Earth will be 1.0167292 AU (15,21,00,523 km) away from the Sun, farthest in? its orbit.

Europe’s largest solar telescope GREGOR captures intricate structures of solar magnetic fields in very high resolution (wavelength - 516 nm). (Image: KIS)

Kumar highlighted that the Perihelion on January 2 will mark a proximity of 50,07,355 km for the Earth to the Sun as compared to their positions on July 6. Kumar said that people will not be able to notice or observe this celestial event.

The event holds importance for educational purposes for students and the public to understand temperatures or Seasons on Earth. Such occurrences show us that the seasons on Earth are independent of the distance of Earth to the Sun but instead, rely on the planet’s axial tilt during its journey around the Sun.