Earth is reaching its farthest distance from the sun soon and the yearly occurrence is known as the aphelion. If you are wondering why is it so hot on our planet, even though it is so far away from the sun, know that Earth's place in its orbit around the does not affect how hot or cold the weather is. 

When is aphelion this year?

Aphelion occurs in July every year, and this year it is happening on Friday, July 5 at 10:36 am IST. Earth moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit, which means that every year it comes closest to the sun once and moves to its farthest point once. The closest position to the sun is called perihelion, while the farthest point from the sun is called aphelion. 

How far is Earth at aphelion?

Earth's farthest point from the sun stands at 94.5 million miles, while at its closest point, Earth is 91.5 million miles away from the sun. It might seem like a lot to us, but considering how vast the solar system is, it is next to nothing. 

Why doesn't aphelion impact temperature on Earth?

Earth's weather is decided by its axial tilt and now how far or close it is to the sun. Earth 23.5-degree tilt of the axis, which means the sun shines on different latitudes at different angles throughout the year. Since the northern half of the planet is leaning towards the sun at aphelion, the days are longer and hotter days of summer. However, at aphelion, the amount of sunlight Earth gets is slightly reduced.

And at perihelion in January, the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, making the days shorter and the temperatures colder.

Do all planets have similar elliptical orbits?

No. The orbits of all the planets are set differently. How much will a planet deviate from its and away from the sun is decided by gravity and the eccentricity of a planet. Different planets pull each other depending on how much gravitational influence they have. Since Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, it wins this competition, exerting the most pressure. How elliptical the orbit gets for a planet depends on its eccentricity. A planet with higher eccentricity will have a more elliptical orbit. For eg. Mars has an eccentricity of 0.094 and it stands at a distance of 129 to 155 million miles away from the sun. Similarly, our home planet Earth is very low on eccentricity, at only 0.017, rendering the orbit comparatively circular.