Astronomy Picture of the Day - Welcome to Perihelion

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-04 19:57:22 | Updated at 2025-01-06 19:06:18 1 day ago

Astronomy Picture of the Day - Welcome to Perihelion
NASA ^ | 4 Jan, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Ward (Barden Ridge Observatory)

Posted on 01/04/2025 11:52:34 AM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it's an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year perihelion is today, January 4, at 13:28 UTC, with the Earth about 147 million kilometers from the Sun. For comparison, at aphelion on last July 3 Earth was at its farthest distance from the Sun, some 152 million kilometers away. But distance from the Sun doesn't determine Earth's seasons. It's only by coincidence that the beginning of southern summer (northern winter) on the December solstice - when this H-alpha picture of the active Sun was taken - is within 14 days of Earth's perihelion date. And it's only by coincidence that Earth's perihelion date is within 11 days of the historic perihelion of NASA's Parker Solar Probe. Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe flew within 6.2 million kilometers of the Sun's surface on 2024 December 24, breaking its own record for closest perihelion for a spacecraft from planet Earth.

TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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1 posted on 01/04/2025 11:52:34 AM PST by MtnClimber

To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 01/04/2025 11:52:54 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...

Pinging the APOD list

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3 posted on 01/04/2025 11:53:37 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

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