A Closer Look at Perihelion: Why We’re Closer to the Sun but Not Burning Up

Welcome to January 4th, a day that is not only noteworthy for its post-holiday tranquility but also for the cosmic event of perihelion!

Yes, that’s right, today our beloved blue planet is 147 million kilometers (about 91.3 million miles for you archaic folks still using miles) from the fiery ball we call the Sun. And contrary to what you might think, this is the one day you should probably stay indoors during the heat wave of your winter escape, thanks to a little thing we like to call “seasons.”

Now, let’s clarify this mildly confusing but wonderfully fascinating tidbit of celestial mechanics. Earth doesn’t saunter around the Sun in a perfect circle, holding hands and singing songs of stellar love. Oh no, that would be way too simple. Instead, we cruise in a delightful elliptical orbit, and today marks the point where we are closest to our solar source of warmth—perihelion. But before you start stripping layers to soak up this apparent solar proximity, remember: date doesn’t determine temperature!

You see, while the good old Father Sun is groggily stretching at 13:28 UTC today, our friends down south are basking in the glow of summer sunshine—just a coincidence in timing, I assure you. As the December solstice rolled in last month, marking winter for the northern hemisphere and summer for the southern hemisphere, the timing of our jaunt to perihelion and the start of southern summer is purely coincidental.

Now, if you think it’s wild that Earth’s closest flirty moment with the Sun falls in December, hold onto your hats. Our little cosmic tango this year happens to be quite close in calendar proximity to another significant perihelion: that of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Launched in 2018, this intrepid spacecraft isn’t one to lag behind at the solar water cooler; it zipped one-upping Earth by getting a record-breaking close—within 6.2 million kilometers of the Sun’s surface. Talk about taking your work relationship too seriously, Parker!

While you sip your first cup of coffee of the year, pondering the laws of the universe and a slightly awkward lunch conversation with a neighbor, just remember: we are, metaphorically speaking, in a cosmic embrace at perihelion today. But don’t you dare forget that the true driver of our seasons is the Earth’s axial tilt—not its elliptical flirtation with the Sun. So as we bask in our moment of closeness, let’s raise our mugs to the marvel of celestial mechanics, to the quirky nature of our solar journey, and to the Parker Solar Probe—a spacecraft that literally dared to get closer than we ever could. Cheers to space science!
Image via NASA https://ift.tt/1VCRKOb