Happy Perihelion!
Jan. 3rd, 2003 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreFrom The Bad Astronomer
On January 4 at 05:00 Universal Time (January 3 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time), the Earth reaches perihelion,
or the point in its orbit where it is closest to the Sun. According to the Naval Observatory, the US's official keeper of such knowledge, the Earth will be 0.983320381 astronomical units from the Sun at that time, where an AU is the average distance of the Earth to the Sun. One AU is defined as a distance of 149,597,870.691 kilometers, so at perihelion
we'll be 147,102,635.20 kilometers from the Sun, give or take a significant digit or two.
On January 4 at 05:00 Universal Time (January 3 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time), the Earth reaches perihelion,
or the point in its orbit where it is closest to the Sun. According to the Naval Observatory, the US's official keeper of such knowledge, the Earth will be 0.983320381 astronomical units from the Sun at that time, where an AU is the average distance of the Earth to the Sun. One AU is defined as a distance of 149,597,870.691 kilometers, so at perihelion
we'll be 147,102,635.20 kilometers from the Sun, give or take a significant digit or two.
