Pugman1943
Well-Known Member
TODAY THE EARTH IS CLOSER TO THE SUN THAN IT WILL BE ALL All year.
THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IN BLOG FORM
JAN. 2 2016 9:15 AM
Perihelion 2016
3.4k
79
By Phil Plait
From the vantage point of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Earth sometimes passes in front of the Sun, creating a kindof eclipse. This is the only (and coolest) real picture I could think of that shows both the Earth and Sun from space simultaneously.
Photo by NASA/GSFC/SDO
Today — Jan. 2, 2016 — at 22:49 UTC (17:49 Eastern (US) time), the Earth will be at perihelion, the point in its orbit where it’s closest to the Sun. At that moment the center of the Earth will be 147,100,176 km (91,403,811 miles) from the center of the Sun. Give or take.
PHIL PLAIT
Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!
That’s still a long way. At highway speeds it would take over 160 years to drive there in a car (I don’t even want to think about how you’d pave that), and almost 19 years to fly there in a typical commercial jet. I hope they have lots of those little bags of peanuts.
Why are we closer to the Sun now than other times? Well, if the Earth orbited the Sun in a circle, we’d always be the same distance from it (in one way, that’s the definition of a circle). But our orbit is ever so slightly elliptical, so sometimes we’re closer to the Sun, sometimes farther.
THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IN BLOG FORM
JAN. 2 2016 9:15 AM
Perihelion 2016
3.4k
79
By Phil Plait
From the vantage point of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Earth sometimes passes in front of the Sun, creating a kindof eclipse. This is the only (and coolest) real picture I could think of that shows both the Earth and Sun from space simultaneously.
Photo by NASA/GSFC/SDO
Today — Jan. 2, 2016 — at 22:49 UTC (17:49 Eastern (US) time), the Earth will be at perihelion, the point in its orbit where it’s closest to the Sun. At that moment the center of the Earth will be 147,100,176 km (91,403,811 miles) from the center of the Sun. Give or take.
PHIL PLAITPhil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!
That’s still a long way. At highway speeds it would take over 160 years to drive there in a car (I don’t even want to think about how you’d pave that), and almost 19 years to fly there in a typical commercial jet. I hope they have lots of those little bags of peanuts.
Why are we closer to the Sun now than other times? Well, if the Earth orbited the Sun in a circle, we’d always be the same distance from it (in one way, that’s the definition of a circle). But our orbit is ever so slightly elliptical, so sometimes we’re closer to the Sun, sometimes farther.