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Ignoring the influence of other Solar System bodies, Earth's orbit, also called Earth's revolution, is an ellipse with the Earth–Sun barycenter as one focus with a current eccentricity of 0.0167. Since this value is close to zero, the center of the orbit is relatively close to the center of the Sun (relative to the size of the orbit).
This means over the course of the roughly 365 days it takes Earth to complete one loop around its parent star, the planet swings through its closest point to the sun early in the year and then its ...
If the position of the Earth (see above) is reckoned with respect to the fixed stars, then the dates indicate the zodiacal constellation near which the Sun can be found. A calendar of this type is called a sidereal solar calendar. [2] The mean calendar year of such a calendar approximates the sidereal year.
A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and set "due west". This occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September. [a]
The accuracy of this calculation requires that the two dates chosen be along the elliptical orbit's minor axis and that the midpoints of each half be along the major axis. As the two dates chosen here are equinoxes, this will be correct when perihelion, the date the Earth is closest to the Sun, falls on a solstice. The current perihelion, near ...
It has already swept past the Sun 21 times, getting ever nearer, but the Christmas Eve visit is record-breaking. At its closest approach, the probe is 3.8 million miles (6.2 million km) from our ...
The sun, Earth and Jupiter will nearly align perfectly in the solar system on Monday, Sept. 26, during an event that happens once every 13 months called the Jupiter opposition. This is also around ...
The actual speed with which Earth orbits the Sun varies slightly during the year, so the speed with which the Sun seems to move along the ecliptic also varies. For example, the Sun is north of the celestial equator for about 185 days of each year, and south of it for about 180 days. [7]