(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Earth will reach its nearest point (perihelion point) in its orbit around the Sun on January 3, 2018, at 9am local time, Qatar Calendar House (QCH) said in a statement.
'Earth will be approximately 147mn km away from the Sun's centre, while it was approximately 152mn km away last July, astronomer expert Dr Beshir Marzouk explained.
Earth (and all other planets) moves around the Sun in an elliptical orbit, so that Earth's distance from the Sun's centre varies by approximately 3% or between 147mn km at Perihelion and 152mn km at aphelion (outermost point).
The mean distance between Earth and Sun's centre is called Astronomical Unit (AU) and one AU equals 149.7mn km approximately.
Earth arrives at perihelion once per year during January, while it arrives at aphelion, also once per year during July. Earth was at perihelion on January 4, 2017. After January 3, 2018, Earth will again reach perihelion on January 3, 2019.
'Earth's high or low temperature is not dependent on the distance from the Sun, Dr Marzouk said while pointing out that during summer Earth is at the farthest point from Sun, and during winter at the nearest point from Sun.
The variations in Earth's temperature are depending on the tilting of Sun's rays. If the Sun's rays are vertical on northern hemisphere in summer, they become tilted during winter.
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the entire universe known to harbour life. Further, Earth revolves around the Sun in 365.2422 days, which is known as the length of one year on the planet.
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