“Fasten Your Seat Belts Because Earth is Closest to the Sun and at its Fastest this Week!”

Scheduled air date: 2006 Jan 02-08

On January 4th, the Earth will be at perihelion—the point in its orbit closest to the Sun—91.4 million mi./147 million km from the Sun. Six months later, on July 3rd, the Earth will be at aphelion—the point farthest from the Sun—94.5 million mi./152 million km distant.

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky6 Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows 98, NT, 2000, Me and XP. Copyright © 1999-2005 by Software Bisque, Inc.