Did you know that Earth's orbit around the sun isn't a circle? Instead, it's an ellipse.

[elleng]

And tomorrow, Earth will be at its closest point to the sun. This is known as perihelion. 🌎☀️
So, since it's an ellipse, it makes sense that Earth has closest and farthest points from the sun each year. For 2024, our closest point comes at 7 p.m. CST on January 2 (1 UTC on January 3). In early January, we’re about 3% closer to the sun - roughly 3 million miles (5 million kilometers) - than we are during Earth’s aphelion (farthest point) in early July. That’s in contrast to our average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km).

[BootinUp]

1. 3 parts in a hundred closer. Pretty close to a circle!

[IbogaProject]

10. More so

It's 3% closer than the furthest it gets, so that is a range over the average. So maybe +-1.5% over the whole year.

[Permanut]

2. Guessing other planets the same?

[2naSalit]

3. Yes.

Can be observed by watching the path of the planets. For instance, Mercury, just yesterday, reached the farthest point in its observable elliptical journey, as we see it from earth looked like it was going backward, and is now returning to its apparent forward motion as it traverses the portion of the ellipse that bring s it a little nearer to the sun.

[2naSalit]

4. Since...

Gradeschool. I may ave missed it then but my dad was a celestial navigator and he was always pointing out astronomical wonders.

[AleksS]

5. For real fun, did you know

That the speed the earth orbits the Sun changes throughout its journey—faster as it’s closer to the sun and slower as it is farther from the sun?

(And bonus: the area of the arc that is swept (think pie slice) is the same for a given amount of time regardless of where in its orbit the earth is; a “fatter” slice is swept when the earth is closer to the sun since it moves faster, and a “skinnier” slice is swept when the earth is farther from the sun since the earth is moving slower!)

[Permanut]

7. So we're scootin' right along now.

[LiberalArkie]

6. I think that was taught back in elementary school back in the 50's...

[Wonder Why]

8. They've gone back to the earth being the center of the universe. We old

People need to learn the "new" Florida science.

[Chainfire]

9. That is why gravity varies from day to day... ;)