Today, July 4, 2014 the Earth reaches its farthest point away from the sun. This is called aphelion or in U.S. we call it Independence Day. Aphelion occurs when the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing summer. The point in orbit where a planet is nearest to the sun is called the perihelion. The word aphelion derives from the Greek words, apo meaning away or off and Helios (the Greek god of the sun). Earth’s aphelion usually occurs sometime around July 4. At aphelion our planet is around 152 million kilometers (94 million miles) away from the Sun. This is in contrast to perihelion when it is 147 million kilometers away from the Sun, and it currently occurs around January 3.
