Neil deGrasse Tyson Instagram – January 4, 2022 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ **Merry Perihelion to Planet Earth ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In our oval orbit, we are 3% closer to the Sun today than we will be six months from now. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If interested: Solar flux scales as the square of the distance. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you do the math, Earth today receives about 6% more solar energy than in July. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But we’re also moving faster in our orbit. Which largely cancels out the net gain. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ That’s why Winter is only 89 days long. Summer: 94 days