Earth to get as close to Sun as possible on January 3

The Earth will be at the point of its orbit closest to the Sun on January 3. Due to this, the apparent diameter of the sun will be 3 percent larger than in July, Azernews reports, citing the Moscow Planetarium.

The distance between the star and the planet on this day will be 147,098,988 km. Astronomers have clarified that the Earth will reach perihelion at 03:38 Moscow time.

It is known that the Earth moves around the Sun in an elliptical orbit. The planet reaches perihelion in January, and aphelion (the most distant point of the orbit) – in early July. During this period, it moves away from the Sun at a distance of over 152 million km.
It should be noted that on December 22, the winter solstice came in the Northern Hemisphere. The duration of the shortest day of the year was 6 hours and 59 minutes.