Aphelion 2027
The Earth is farthest from the Sun on July 5, 2027 at 05:06 UTC, at a distance of 152,100,000 km.
Time in UTC
Monday, July 5, 05:06
Time remaining
276 d 22 h 29 min
Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. How we calculate
Distance to the Sun
152,100,000 km
1.01673 astronomical units
Size of the Sun in the sky
3.3 % smaller than at perihelion
Strength of sunlight
6.5 % weaker than at perihelion
The Earth’s orbit is a slightly stretched ellipse, so its distance from the Sun changes by about 5 million kilometres through the year. The farthest point, aphelion, always falls in early July, in the middle of the northern summer.
The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth’s axis, not by the distance: the tilt changes how high the Sun climbs and how long the days are, which matters far more than the 3 % difference in distance. The distance does have one visible effect: the Earth moves fastest near perihelion, so the northern winter half of the year is about four days shorter than the summer half.
Other point of the orbit: Perihelion 2027