Sunset over Earth oceans as seen from the International Space Station.
When Earth is Closest and Farthest from the Sun in 2025
Earth reaches perihelion on January 4, 2025, and aphelion on July 3, 2025. Find out what these celestial terms mean and why they matter!
What Are Aphelion and Perihelion?
The terms perihelion and aphelion describe different points in our planet’s orbit of the Sun. This can also apply to other planets, comets, or bodies.
- Aphelion is the point of the Earth’s orbit that is farthest away from the Sun. It always happens in early July, about 2 weeks after the June solstice,
- Perihelion is the point of the Earth’s orbit that is nearest to the Sun. This always happens in early January, about 2 weeks after the December Solstice.
The words come from ancient Greek, in which helios means “Sun,” apo means “far,” and peri means “close.”
Read Next
(Did You Know: The point in the Moon’s orbit that is closest to the Earth is called the perigee, and the point farthest from the Earth is known as the apogee. Learn about perigee and apogee.)
Aphelion and Perihelion Dates for 2025 and 2026
- 2025 Perihelion: January 4, 2025 8:28 A.M.
- 2025 Aphelion: July 3, 2025 3:54 P.M.
- 2026 Perihelion: January 3, 2026 12:15 pm
- 2026 Aphelion: July 6, 2026 1:30 pm
In 2025, Earth will be 91,405,993 miles away from the Sun at perihelion and 94,502,939 miles away from the Sun at aphelion. So, Earth is about 4,800,000 km (3,000,000 miles) farther from the Sun in July than in January.
Do Aphelion and Perihelion Cause the Seasons?
It’s not the distance from the Sun that causes our seasons. Seasons happen because the Earth’s axis is tilted at an angle. It’s because Earth orbits the Sun on a tilt that our planet gets more or less of the Sun’s direct rays at different times of the year. Read more about the reason for the seasons!
Aphelion and Perihelion on Mars
Though aphelion and perihelion are terms mostly used in reference to Earth since it’s our home planet, they are also relevant to other planets orbiting the Sun. Every planet has points in their orbits when they are farthest or closest away from their star.
For example, the planet Mars has an even more elliptical orbit than Earth. In comparison, Earth’s orbit seems almost circular; this almost-circular orbit may be why Earth’s climate is relatively stable.
Mars also has four seasons, but they are twice as long because it takes about 2 Earth years for Mars to go around the Sun. The southern hemisphere of Mars has warmer, shorter springs and summers than the north, as Mars is closest to the Sun, which is towards the end of southern spring. The southern winter is longer because Mars is farthest away from the Sun, moving more slowly in its elliptical orbit around the Sun.
For Mars, going from a colder winter to a warmer spring can be quite dramatic.
While Earth’s distance to the Sun varies throughout its orbit, with aphelion in July and perihelion in January, this variation isn’t the main driver of our seasons. The tilt of the Earth’s axis is the key factor. However, understanding aphelion and perihelion helps us appreciate the complexities of planetary motion and how even slight variations in orbit can influence climates.
Did you learn something new today? Or perhaps, do you understand aphelion and perihelion a bit better?
Catherine Boeckmann
ADVERTISEMENT
I am 80 yrs old. I like still to learn new things everyday of my life. More than my mother or grandmother ever did. Thank you.
The bottom illustration shows the Northern Hemisphere tilted toward the sun, but calls it "Northern Winter/Southern Summer." Labels are misapplied here.
But good article explaining the seasons' independence from perihelion & aphelion!
To me, it would make more sense if the earth was warmer if the suns closer and vice Versa.. but then again I don’t really believe in space theory and neither did our ancients! Interesting, nonetheless.
Why is perihelion later in 2025, and aphelion is earlier in 2025? I would have expected both to change in the same direction.
It would take a bit of digging, but I expect the answer is the Earth-Moon system mucks up the ellipse. The US Naval Observatory seems to take that effect (and the planets) into account. Basically, the Earth and Moon revolve around their "barycenter," their center of mass, and the barycenter traces the elliptical orbit. When the barycenter is at perihelion and the moon is away from the Earth (we see a full moon), the Earth is a little closer to the sun than if we had a new moon. Things are harder to visualize at other phases of the moon, but that's when the timing of perihelion seems odd.
Around 1980 I wrote a computer program to compute sunrise and sunset times with a thought about selling it through the OFA. My derivation was based on orbital mechanics ignoring planets and moon, but I needed a good reference time for perihelion. After figuring out the above I went to the library and looked through old OFAs looking for perihelions near full moons and that provide a decent reference. My program is still very accurate. Maybe for its 50th birthday I'll tweak some of my constants.
Excellent question! Not having our astronomer available at the moment to confirm, our best guess is that it might have something to do in part with the variations in Earth’s orbit around the Sun (which involves the Earth/Moon orbit around a barycenter), and perhaps gravitational influences of other planets.
The definitions provided are contradictory of the Greek translation.
Didn’t the introduction say the earth is closer to the sun in January? The paragraph accompanyting the NASA diagram states the opposite.
Thank you, we have updated the article!
