Sun farthest from Earth for Independence Day

Where’s the sun on this fine Independence Day? Oh, it’s just farther away than usual. In fact, the sun is as far away from the Earth as it will be this year today. Look (indirectly) at the blazing ball–it might seem a little smaller today than usual. That’s not a hallucination. As explained in this National Geographic article, each year has one day farthest and one day closest to the sun. These days are referred to as perihelion (closest) and aphelion (farthest) and they’re a product of Earth’s elliptical orbit.

But before you think you can go ahead and not sweat the heat so much today, think again. The sun’s distance from the Earth today won’t affect your regular summer temperatures. Our planet is 94,511,523 miles from the sun today, but it’s the tilt of the Earth, not its distance from the sun, that determines the seasons.

In short: nothing can save me from this scorching Texan summer. Not even the Earth moving farther away from the sun.

Read more at National Geographic.