Did you know that Earth's orbit around the sun isn't a circle? Instead, it's an ellipse.

[elleng]

And tomorrow, Earth will be at its closest point to the sun. This is known as perihelion. 🌎☀️
So, since it's an ellipse, it makes sense that Earth has closest and farthest points from the sun each year. For 2024, our closest point comes at 7 p.m. CST on January 2 (1 UTC on January 3). In early January, we’re about 3% closer to the sun - roughly 3 million miles (5 million kilometers) - than we are during Earth’s aphelion (farthest point) in early July. That’s in contrast to our average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km).