On Friday, Earth will swing toward the outermost point in its orbit, known as aphelion. You, me and everyone on the planet will be three million miles farther from the sun than when we are closest to it.
The change occurs because our planet’s orbit is not perfectly circular. Instead, it is squashed into an ellipse with the sun offset from the center — an effect that causes Earth to orbit to its farthest point every July and its innermost point, or perihelion, every January (the exact dates vary slightly from year to year).
So, while record-breaking temperatures and raging wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere might lead you to believe the sun is punishingly close right now, remember that it is just the opposite. In fact, the extra distance causes the amount of received sunlight to drop by 7 percent compared to January.
