DISCOVER Magazine. Science, Technology and The Future
Current Issue
Subscribe Today »
  • Renew
  • Give a Gift
  • Archives
  • Customer Service
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Newsletter
  • Health & Medicine
  • Mind & Brain
  • Technology
  • Space
  • Human Origins
  • Living World
  • Environment
  • Physics & Math
  • Video
  • Photos
  • Podcast
  • RSS
Bad Astronomy
« How do you spell Ihnatko again?
F ring and Mimas »

Don’t you just hate perihelion?

If you can guess what line I twisted for the title, and from what movie, you win nothing.

But either way, you do win a front row seat to the Sun! The Earth arrived at perihelion on January 3 at midnight Universal Time (it probably wasn’t exactly at midnight, but that’s the accuracy listed at the US Naval Observatory website), which was an hour ago as I post this. Perihelion is when the Earth is closest to the Sun on its elliptical orbit (which only marginally affects the seasons).

The distance to the Sun at perihelion is about 147 million kilometers, and at aphelion — the farthest distance, duh — is about 5 million km farther out. You won’t notice the giant Sun looming down on us, of course, since the change in distance is pretty small, so the size of the Sun only changes about 3% over six months.

No eggs will stand on end, no forces vast and mysterious will reverse themselves, and no prophecies will finally come to fruition. Perihelion is just something cool, and now you know we’re there.

By the way, I would have posted this earlier today, but sometimes even astronomers get confused over the whole "midnight in England is earlier on the day before here in the US" thing.

Share

January 2nd, 2008 6:00 PM by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff | 24 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

24 Responses to “Don’t you just hate perihelion?”

  1. 1.   Blaise Pascal Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    Happy Anomalistic New Year!

  2. 2.   bigjohn Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    Perihelion!! I predict that the Sun will appear to be as big as the full Moon!

  3. 3.   Michael Lonergan Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    If we are at the closest point to the Sun in our orbit now, and it is summer south of the equator, does that mean that summer at say 49 degrees South, is hotter than summer at 49 degrees north latitude, when we are further from the sun?

  4. 4.   gopher65 Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm

    Yup Michael, at the moment summer is hotter in the southern hemisphere than in the northern. But I think it reverses itself every 7000 years or so because of precession. Or is that every 14000? I don’t remember. Something like that about some dizziemedoodle idea …. or something.

  5. 5.   Michael Lonergan Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    Never mind. I just read the link you posted.

  6. 6.   Shoeshine Boy Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    Cool! My birthday is the same day as perihelion.

    I r special :)

  7. 7.   Lugosi Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    If we’re so close to the sun, why am I freezing my butt off? Obviously this is some sort of hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

  8. 8.   BA Fan Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    Isn’t today Jan 2? According to US Naval Observatory, Perihelion is Jan 3 at 20 UT (5pm ET). Still time for that last minute shopping.

  9. 9.   The Bad Astronomer Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    At USNO the time is listed as “00″, or midnight UT. That’s 7:00 Eastern, or 5 Mountain, on January 2.

  10. 10.   Evolving Squid Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 pm

    Wednesday, January 2, 2008
    Perihelion – Earth is closest to the sun
    (19:42:48) Perihelion – Earth is closest to the sun.

    From http://telescopes.net/doc/3010

  11. 11.   Evolving Squid Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    That would be Eastern time

  12. 12.   Gavin Flower Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 pm

    In the Southern Hemisphere we may be closer to the Sun, but we are moving faster in this part the Earth’s orbit… does that make our Summer shorter???

  13. 13.   Jack Hagerty Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 1:33 am

    Gavin Flower says: “In the Southern Hemisphere we may be closer to the Sun, but we are moving faster in this part the Earth’s orbit… does that make our Summer shorter???”

    In a word, yes. The southern hemisphere gets the worst of both worlds; the summers are shorter and hotter while the winters are colder and longer. But as Phil has explained elsewhere, the temperature has more to do with the ocean/land ratio than the distance to the sun.

    - Jack

  14. 14.   Redx Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 7:00 am

    but… eggs will stand on end. Most people try it on the equinox, but eggs will still stand on end.

  15. 15.   cope Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 7:29 am

    “Don’t you just hate…Illinois Nazis?” from “Blues Brothers would be my guess.

    Should I be correct, please send my large container of nothing to nobody@nothing.nowhere.

    Thanks.

  16. 16.   Rick Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 am

    i thought it was homer saying “don’t you just hate pants?” in a simpsons episode.

  17. 17.   Joshua Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am

    “Don’t you just hate Perry’s wife?”

    C’mon, didn’t anybody see Arthur?

  18. 18.   Eric Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 am

    Wow, this morning I opened up a new carton of eggs, and to my utter amazement, all 12 eggs were standing on end!!!!

    What could this mean? What could this possibly mean???

  19. 19.   The Bad Astronomer Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 am

    Joshua: I’ll alert the media. You are correct.

    It’s not the first time I’ve quoted “Arthur”, either. It’s a fantastically funny movie.

  20. 20.   Doc Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 10:35 am

    My favorite Arthur quote is still:

    “Don’t you wish you were me? I know I do.”

  21. 21.   Dídac López Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    You have an explanation about that anomalistic precession:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomalistic_precession#Anomalistic_precession

    This phenomenon is independent from solstice/equinox precession. However, it plays a minor role in “Milankovic cycles” (the oscillations between ice ages and inter-glacial ages in a “Icehouse Earth”…).

    Anyway, Happy Anomalistic Year to Everybody.

  22. 22.   Troy Says:
    January 4th, 2008 at 2:47 am

    I think the most conspicuous aspect of perihelion is that you get later sunsets.

  23. 23.   zemig Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    Shouldnt perihelion coincide with winter solstice?

  24. 24.   Barton Paul Levenson Says:
    January 7th, 2008 at 8:09 am

    zemig types:

    [[Shouldnt perihelion coincide with winter solstice?]]

    Why? The length of day as opposed to night does depend on where Earth is in its orbit (and the obliquity of the equator), but I don’t think that cycle is tied to perihelion/aphelion in any way. Is it? Dr. Plait?

Leave a Reply





    • About Bad Astronomy


      Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.


      The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.


      Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com


       
      Keep Libel Laws out of Science
       
       Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009.


    • Science Getaways


      Science Getaways: Vacation with your brain!


    • Subscribe to BA


      Subscribe to Bad Astronomy using RSS! RSS feed button


    • Death from the Skies!


      Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

      "If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
      -- Adam Savage, Mythbusters


      "Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
      -- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising


    • Recent Posts

      • A dying star with the wind in its hair
      • Maiden flight for ESA’s Vega rocket tonight
      • Another interactive way to scale the Universe
      • An ear to the ocean
      • The staring eye of a crescent moon
    • Social/Networking/Cool Stuff


      Google+


       Twitter




       Facebook


    • Post Categories

    • Archives

    • Blogroll

      • Bad Astronomy (old site)
      • Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum
      • BAFacts Archive
      • Commenting Policy
      • Computer Support
      • Contact Information
      • DM: 80 Beats
      • DM: Cosmic Variance
      • DM: Discoblog
      • DM: Gene Expression
      • DM: NERS
      • DM: Science Not Fiction
      • DM: The Intersection
      • DM: The Loom
      • James Randi Educational Foundation
      • My use of the word "denier"
      • Planetary Society Blog
      • Politics and Religion posts
      • Press Kit
      • Q&BA Archive
      • The Antivax Bible
      • Universe Today
    • RSS DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space

      • A dying star with the wind in its hair | Bad Astronomy
      • Maiden flight for ESA’s Vega rocket tonight | Bad Astronomy
      • Another interactive way to scale the Universe | Bad Astronomy
      • The staring eye of a crescent moon | Bad Astronomy
      • When the Moon hits your apse in a way-cool time lapse | Bad Astronomy
    • RSS DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom

      • A Planet of Viruses: Autographed Book Sale
      • Animal Friendships: My cover story for Time magazine
      • The Future of E-books–podcast of my interview on Wisconsin Public Radio
      • Thursday, February 16: Science and social media panel in New York
      • A Scientific Jonah: My profile of Joy Reidenberg in tomorrow’s New York Times


  • Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us