09/01/2020 Astronomy Picture of the Day

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along
with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2020 January 9

Perihelion to Aphelion
Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Griffin (Otago Museum)

Explanation: Perihelion for 2020, the point in Earth's elliptical orbit when it is closest to the Sun, occurred
on January 5th. The distance from the Sun doesn't determine the seasons, though. Those are governed by the
tilt of Earth's axis of rotation, so January is still winter in the north and summer in southern hemisphere. But
it does mean that on January 5 the Sun was at its largest apparent size. This composite neatly compares two
pictures of the Sun, both taken from planet Earth with the same telescope and camera. The left half was
captured on the date of the 2020 perihelion. The right was recorded only a week before the July 4 date of the
2019 aphelion, the farthest point in Earth's orbit. Otherwise difficult to notice, the change in the Sun's
apparent diameter between perihelion and aphelion amounts to a little over 3 percent. The 2020 perihelion
and the preceding 2019 aphelion correspond to the closest and farthest perihelion and aphelion of the 21st
century.

Tomorrow's picture: clouds like pearls

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09/01/2020 Astronomy Picture of the Day

A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC

& Michigan Tech. U.

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