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Ignoring the influence of other Solar System bodies, Earth's orbit, also called Earth's revolution, is an ellipse with the Earth–Sun barycenter as one focus with a current eccentricity of 0.0167. Since this value is close to zero, the center of the orbit is relatively close to the center of the Sun (relative to the size of the orbit).
At perihelion, Earth is roughly 91.4 million miles away from the sun. On average, the planet is separated from the sun by a distance of approximately 93 million miles.
The Earth spends less time near perihelion and more time near aphelion. This means that the lengths of the seasons vary. [15] Perihelion currently occurs around 3 January, so the Earth's greater velocity shortens winter and autumn in the northern hemisphere, and summer and spring in the southern hemisphere.
Even further out, Sedna has an extremely-high eccentricity of 0.855 due to its estimated aphelion of 937 AU and perihelion of about 76 AU, possibly under influence of unknown object(s). The eccentricity of Earth's orbit is currently about 0.016 7; its orbit is nearly circular.
A recently discovered comet is making a bright debut to Earth this month, ... Comet ATLAS reached perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, on Jan. 13. ... USA TODAY Sports.
Earth's rotational velocity also varies in a phenomenon known as length-of-day variation. [172] Earth's annual orbit is elliptical rather than circular, and its closest approach to the Sun is called perihelion. In modern times, Earth's perihelion occurs around 3 January, and its aphelion around 4 July.
The closest approach to Earth will be one day after perihelion. [7] It is expected to have an apparent magnitude of −0.3, compared with only +2.1 for the 1986 apparition. [ 14 ] On 9 September 2060, Halley will pass within 0.98 au (147,000,000 km) of Jupiter, and then on 20 August 2061 will pass within 0.0543 au (8,120,000 km) of Venus.
As the two dates chosen here are equinoxes, this will be correct when perihelion, the date the Earth is closest to the Sun, falls on a solstice. The current perihelion, near January 4, is fairly close to the solstice of December 21 or 22.