Chennai: Earth will reach the closest point to sun on 2 January, Planetary Society of India (PSI) has said.
According to an official from PSI, earth revolves around sun in an elliptical orbit. So, at one point of time during its journey around the sun, it will be at the closest point it can get (perihelion) and at one point of time during the year it would be at the farthest point (aphelion).
At 7.27 pm today, earth will reach the closest point to Sun in its annual elliptical orbit around Sun at 14,70,93,168 kilometre from sun, while on 6 July, 2021, at 3.46 am, earth will be at 15,21,00,523 kilometre from the sun i.e. which is the farthest point.
Though people will not able to notice or observe this celestial event, it is of greatest importance with educational potential for students and the public to understand temperatures or seasons on Earth are not dependent on the distance of earth to the sun but axial tilt during its journey around the Sun, it is said.