For weeks, Mia told everyone: “We’re closest to the sun in January! The cold is a trick.” Her teacher gave her a gold star. Leo got a coffee mug from Mia that read: Ask me about perihelion.
“Closest one of the year.”
And every January, when people shivered and complained about the frigid depths of winter, Leo and Mia would look up at the pale sun—larger, technically, than any summer sun—and whisper to each other: during what month is the sun closest to earth
Mia giggled. “So I was right to be confused?” For weeks, Mia told everyone: “We’re closest to
Not that you’d ever feel it. But somehow, knowing made the cold a little more bearable. “Closest one of the year
Leo scrolled down. An animation showed Earth’s elliptical orbit—not a perfect circle, but a slight oval. The sun sat off-center. In early January, Earth reaches perihelion , its closest point: about 91.4 million miles away. In July, aphelion : nearly 94.5 million miles. A difference of three million miles—enough to affect the sun’s apparent size, but not enough to override the seasons.
Leo had always assumed summer meant the sun was nearest. It made sense: hot, bright, scorching July afternoons, the sun beating down like a giant standing just overhead. So when his daughter Mia, age eight, asked him during a winter picnic, “Dad, when is the sun closest to Earth?” he answered with full confidence.