On Wednesday, January 4th, the Sun looks huge as usual and there is a very simple explanation for it.
On Wednesday, January 4th, why does the Sun hang in the sky like a yellow ball, much larger than any other day of this year? The thing is, today is a truly unique day – Perihelion Day. What’s special, says Forbes.
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A common, but not quite, day of the year
And for our planet and star, January 4 is not a special day. Today, Earth will travel about 2.5 million km in its orbit around the Sun, and the solar system itself will orbit about 51 million km around the center of the galaxy.
What makes this day unique is something else. The fact is that on January 4, 2023, the Earth will be closer to the Sun than any other day of this year. This is why the Sun appears so large in the sky.
The point in space where our planet, like any other space object, is at its closest distance to the Sun is called the perihelion. For this reason, astronomers sometimes refer to this day as Perihelion Day.
To be more precise, according to scientists’ predictions, on Wednesday, January 4, at 18:17 Kyiv time, the Earth will come to its closest point to the Sun. At present, our planet will be at a distance of 147,098,925 km from the Sun, which is 0.9833 astronomical units. We remind you that 1 astronomical unit is the total distance from our planet to our star.
If our planet is this close to the Sun, then why isn’t this day hotter than usual?
The Earth revolves around the Sun in a slightly elliptical rather than circular orbit, so the distance from the planet to the Sun changes about 3% during the year. As for the perihelion, strange as it may sound, Earth receives the most solar radiation on this day, but also the least amount of heat.
The fact is that the Earth is inclined at an angle of about 23.5 degrees to the orbital plane, and therefore the seasons change. This tilt affects how much sunlight each hemisphere of the Earth receives at different times of the year.
For example, with the winter solstice in December, winter begins in the northern hemisphere, and the days before and after the solstice are the shortest, and the nights are accordingly longest. And summer came in the southern hemisphere, but here it was the other way around.
Currently, the northern hemisphere is moving away from the Sun, while the southern hemisphere is facing our star. But most of the southern hemisphere is covered by the ocean, which absorbs the extra heat and negates the fact that Earth is closest to the Sun. And, accordingly, the planet is not warming.
If there is a day when the earth is closest to our star, then there must also be a day when the planet is furthest from the Sun. The opposite of Perihelion is aphelion and so to speak Aphelion Day will occur on July 6, 2023.
As already written Focusactually the sky is not blue and scientists have told what the true color of the sky on Earth is.
same Focus He wrote that NASA has shown new incredibly detailed images of Earth from space, taken by a recently launched meteorological satellite.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.