Why on July 6 the Earth will move more slowly by 7,000 km / h

On that day, the Earth will cross what is called aphelion, a word of Greek origin meaning "far from the Sun"

"The aphelion is the point of Earth's orbit around the Sun in which the Earth is located farther from our star and perihelion (near the Sun) is just the opposite point, it's the point of Earth's orbit in which the Earth is closer to the Sun, "explained to BBC Mundo Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio, astrophysicist and developer of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands.

"In perihelion, the Sun is about 147 million km from the Earth, and when it is in the aphelion, it is about 152 million km from the Sun."

The distance varies because the Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a perfect but elliptical circumference.

In the aphelion, "the Earth is a little further, 5 million kilometers farther from the Sun," than in perihelion.

Speed ​​[194] 59004] The aphelion takes place every year between the 2nd and the 7th of July. Perihelion took place this year on January 3rd.

The greatest distance between the Earth and the Sun will be recorded on July 6 at 17:46 GMT, while the planet and its star are at 152,095,566 km.

Largest distance results in lower velocity

As Keple's second law states, when planets are close to the Sun in their orbit, they move faster than when they are farther away [19659010]. distance in aphelion means that the speed of orbital translation will be less than 103,536 km / h, more than 7,000 km / h less than perihelion speed.

Seasons
The greater or lesser distance of the Sun during the aphelion The seasons are produced by the inclination of the axis of rotation of the Earth with respect to the plane that describes around the Sun, what we call the ecliptic. sign Rodríguez Eugenio

"This axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees and so when we are in the northern hemisphere summer, the north axis, that is to say say the North Pole of the Earth, points more towards the direction of the Sun. "

" In contrast, in winter, our North Pole points in the opposite direction, not exactly the opposite because it is about 23, 5 degrees, but it points to the side of the sun. "

More water in the southern hemisphere coincides with the aphelion," but we are getting more solar radiation here in the world. " "Northern hemisphere because the sun is higher above the horizon and we also have more hours of sunshine," says astrophysics.

In the southern hemisphere, on the other hand, summer coincides with perihelion.

"This might make us think that in the southern hemisphere the temperature rises more than north in summer, because apart from the inclination, the earth is also closer to the sun" , explains Rodríguez Eugenio

But this is not the case

What happens is that "in the southern hemisphere there is more water and that means that the temperature is not the same. Not increase much ".

"This seems to be due to the fact that the earth warms much more easily than water and, because the southern hemisphere has a greater proportion of its surface covered with water, the Excess energy is absorbed by it. "

In the summer, in the southern hemisphere and in the northern hemisphere, the temperature is about the same, explains astrophysics.

Source: BBC.