Earth farthest from sun – at aphelion – July 6, 2026
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Earth farthest from sun – at aphelion – July 6, 2026
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Earth reaches its farthest point from the sun on July 6 … but it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. We’ll explain the science behind aphelion and then take a tour of July’s best sights in the night sky, from the Milky Way to the moon, planets and meteors. Join us – and bring your questions – at noon CDT (17 UTC) on Wednesday, July 1.
Watch in the player above, or on YouTube. We’ve never needed good science more than we do right now. Support EarthSky in 2026 and help us keep it going strong.
Our planet Earth reaches aphelion – its greatest distance from the sun for this year – at 12:30 p.m. CDT (17:30 UTC) on July 6. At that time, Earth will be 94,502,961 miles (152,087,774 km) from the sun.
It’s summer already in the Northern Hemisphere. And Earth’s aphelion always comes in July, in the midst of Northern Hemisphere summer (and Southern Hemisphere winter). So you know our distance from the sun doesn’t cause Earth’s seasons.
Why does our distance from the sun change? Basically, it’s because Earth’s orbit is almost, but not quite, circular. Our distance from the sun doesn’t change much, percentage-wise (a little over 3%).
So today we’re about three million miles (five million km) farther from the sun than we will be six months from now. That’s in contrast to our average distance from the sun of about 93 million miles (150 million km). By the way, the word aphelion comes from the Greek words apo meaning away, off, apart and helios, for the Greek god of the sun.
That’s us, in early July. But we’re not much farther apart than usual. The seasons aren’t due to Earth’s changing distance from the sun.
In fact, we’re always farthest from the sun in early July during northern summer and closest in January during northern winter. Instead, the seasons result from Earth’s tilt on its axis. Right now, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere because the northern part of Earth is tilted most toward the sun.
As a result, we’re receiving the sun’s rays most directly Meanwhile, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere because the southern part of Earth is tilted most away from the sun. The more indirect sunlight causes cooler temperatures.
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