Friday 4th July 2014
At about 3pm (GMT) on the July 4th, the Earth will reach that point in its orbit where it is farthest from the sun.
Known as Aphelion, this location in Earth’s orbit puts the planet about 152 million km (94.5 million miles) from the sun. That’s about 4.9 million km (3.1 million miles) more than the Earth’s closest distance to the sun (called Perihelion), which occurred on Jan. 3.
The exact difference in the distance between Earth’s closest and farthest points from the sun is 4,996,435 km (3,104,641 miles), or 3.28 percent, which makes a difference in radiant heat received by the planet of nearly 7 percent. The average distance between the Earth and sun is about 150 million km (93 million miles).