Perihelion is happening! The word comes from Greek and means near the Sun. Sunday morning at 2:48 Eastern, the Earth will be at its closest point to the Sun. That usually leads to the question - "why are we in our coldest season when we are closest to the Sun?" Bottom line: we're still in the same orbit, so our position relative to the Sun in that orbit doesn't direct our seasons. The tilt of Earth's axis is what governs seasons. When our side of the planet is tilted toward the Sun, we have summer; when it's tilted away, we have winter.
Image Credit: NASA
At perihelion the Earth is a little more than 91 Million miles from the Sun. When the Earth is farthest from the Sun, we're more than 95 Million miles apart. That's called aphelion; between the closest and farthest points, we fluctuate more than 3 Million miles. That means Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a perfect circle but actually an ellipse.Â
