Tales from the Northern Forests


Aphelion

Aphelion stems from the Greek word 'apo', meaning away from, and helios, the Greek word for the Sun. It is the point that the earth is furthest away from the sun and occurs every year around the fourth
of July.
It occurs because the orbit of the earth around the sun is not a perfectly round. If it were the Sun would be at the center of that circle. But as our orbit is slightly ellipse (oval) the Sun is at a point called the 'focus' of the ellipse, which is not quite the same as the centre. Since the Sun is not at the centre, our planet moves closer and further away from the sun as it orbits.
Although the earth is furthest away from the sun in July there is no real danger of our atmosphere to freeze and fall to the ground, as, luckily, our seasons are primarily shaped by the tilt of our planets spin axis. If, however, our orbit were not so close to being circular the fourth of July would be the coldest day of the year no matter where
on earth you would be.


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