Earth's orbit is an ellipse, not a perfect circle. Earth's distance from the Sun varies by about 3 million miles throughout the year. Earth's orbit's semimajor axis is approximately 93 million miles.

How does the Earth’s orbit influence our daylight and temperatures? As the Earth orbits the sun, it spins around an axis – picture a stick going through the Earth, from the North Pole to the South ...

Why does the Earth’s tilt create our season? The Earth orbits the Sun, but with a tilt. That tilt is important to those of us on the planet because it creates our seasons. How does that work? What ...

Every January, Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun, known as perihelion. Yet, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Earth, sun, moon: three objects in space whose interactions have a pretty big impact on our lives. Earth orbits the sun once a year, and it rotates on its axis about once a day (depending on your ...

What is Perihelion? In the vast expanse of space, celestial bodies follow elliptical orbits around stars, with one point being closer to the star—known as the perihelion. This is the term used to ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. Earth is today at aphelion, the point in its orbit at which ...