Aphelion day 2020: What is aphelion and when does it occur?

While the United States celebrated Fourth of July, NASA also took to Twitter to inform that the earth was at the farthest point in its orbit around the sun on July 4. Known as Aphelion Day, NASA said that the earth was more than 2.5 million km farther than the planet’s average distance of about 150 million km. NASA on Twitter shared the meaning of Aphelion and wrote that it is an ‘appropriate’ day to learn what the term means. 

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The US space agency explained that the Earth travels in an elliptical, or oval-shaped, orbit around the sun and as a result, the distance between the Earth and the sun varies by about three per cent throughout the year. According to NASA, when the Earth reaches ‘aphelion’, the sun appears slightly smaller in the sky than at any other time of the year. However, the space agency also added that the difference is not noticeable to the naked eye. 

Earth reaches ‘aphelion’ only once a year and the event usually falls almost 14 days after the June solstice, which marks the first day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere and the first day for the winter in Southern Hemisphere. The US Space agency also explained that the change in distance from the sun is not, however, related to the Earth’s season. NASA said that the season’s result from Earth’s tilt on its axis. 

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‘Full moon weekend’ 

Furthermore, NASA Earth informed that the next full Moon called ‘Buck Moon’ will appear on July 5. The space agency also said that the full moon is going to be a part ‘penumbral lunar eclipse’ which will be visible from most of North America. 

NASA wrote, “The Moon will be close enough to opposite the Sun that its northern edge will pass through the partial shadow of the Earth — called a partial penumbral eclipse”. 

They added, “The Moon will appear full for about three days around the eclipse, from Friday evening into Monday morning, making this a full Moon weekend”. 

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