It's winter yet the Earth is closest to the Sun!

 It’s January, the beginning of another year, and although we are in winter, the Earth will be closest to the Sun. The closest point, or ‘Perihelion’, occurs on January 4 when Earth will be just 91,405,993 miles (147,103,686 km) away from its star. That’s in contrast to six months from now when, on July 3, Earth reaches ‘Aphelion’, its most distant point from the Sun, when we will be 94,502,939 miles (152,087,737 km) away. 

In the northern hemisphere, we experience winter in January, so it can seem counter-intuitive to learn that the Earth is now at its closest to the Sun. However, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun in January, while the southern hemisphere, which is tilted towards the Sun, has summer. In six months’ time of course the positions will be reversed.

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