Earth Closest to Sun on Jan. 4; Will There Be Extra Heat?

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Earth will make its closest approach to the sun on Tuesday, January 4, 2022. In the perihelion phenomenon, the distance between Earth and the sun is about 147 million kilometers. This raises questions as to whether or not air temperatures will rise.

Astronomer Avivah Yamani, a founder of the Bandung-based Langit Selatan astronomy media community, explained that Earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit and in a counterclockwise direction.

Because of the oval shape of its orbit, Earth sometimes reaches its closest distance to the sun and vice versa, dubbed the aphelion, which is about 152 million kilometers.

According to Avivah, the difference between the farthest and closest distances from Earth to the sun, which is about five million kilometers, was not far and so there was no significant difference in its effect on Earth. 

This can be concluded that the closest distance between Earth and the sun has little to do with Earth's temperatures. “Unless the Earth's orbit is very oval and the perihelion-aphelion gap is very large, then there will be an impact,” said the astronomy expert on Sunday, January 2.

Read: 10 Hottest Places on Earth

ANWAR SISWADI (CONTRIBUTOR)