Happy Perihelion!

Courtesy of nasa.gov

Tonight marks the point when the earth is closest to the sun. This is called perihelion from the Greek peri meaning near and hellos meaning sun. The moment this happens is at 06:36 UTC Jan. 4, 2015. That translates to 01:36 Eastern US time, or 10:36 p.m. Pacific time on Jan. 3 so technically it is tomorrow for part of the world but for us here in the Western US it is tonight (living on a sphere causes weird things to happen with time). 

Courtesy of nasa.gov

The earth orbits the sun in an elliptical path so our distance from the sun is always changing. If we orbited in a perfect circle, our average distance would never change. However, because the moon orbits the earth we actually move a little bit each day. You see, the moon is orbiting the earth but technically they are orbiting a common center of gravity (see animation).

Now perihelion is an interesting phenomena because it, when explained, debunks the myth that seasons happen because of the planet's distance from the sun. After all, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere and yet we are as close to the sun as we get. Now the aforementioned myth is also easily debunked because it stems from Eurocentric or Northern Hemisphere-centric views. A lot of people forget that while it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere it is summer down south, so that myth does not hold up to logic. 

So as we approach perihelion remember how incredible it is that you are on a planet that is revolving around a star that is one of approximately 100 billion other stars in our galaxy. Puts things in perspective doesn't it?

I bid you a happy perihelion!