The Earth orbits the Sun at minimum speed this week

July 3 () –

The Earth will cross this Thursday, July 6, the furthest point from the Sun in its orbit of this 2023, an astronomical milestone known as aphelion, and that takes place every year between the 2nd and the 7th of July.

At 20:06 UTC, our distance from the Sun will be just over 152 million km, that is, about 5 million km more than at the moment of lowest distance (perihelion), which happened on January 4, reports the National Astronomical Observatory.

The Earth revolves around the Sun, describing an elliptical orbit of 930 million kilometers, at an average speed of 107,280 kilometers per hour, which means traveling the distance in 365 days and almost 6 hours, hence every four years a leap year is counted.

CHANGES IN SPEED

But, according to Kepler’s second law, that speed of translation varies, increasing to its maximum at perihelion –the shortest distance from the Sun– with 110,700 kilometers per hour, and reducing to its minimum at aphelion, with 103,536 kilometers per hour, more than 7,000 kilometers per hour apart.

Kepler realized that the line connecting the planets and the Sun covers the same area in the same amount of time. This means that when the planets are close to the Sun in their orbit, they move faster than when they are farther away.

Thus, the orbital speed of a planet will be less, at a greater distance from the Sun, and at smaller distances the orbital speed will be greater. The average distance from the Sun is on average 150 million kilometers. At aphelion it reaches 152.09 million kilometers and at perihelion it drops to 147.10 million kilometers away.