Question

What is the perihelion and aphelion of earth? How are these distances calculated?

Answer 1

Perihelion = 147.056 million km.

Aphelion = 152.14 million km.

Explanation:

Perihelion occurs when the Earth is closest to the Sun and Aphelion occurs when it is furthest away.

These distances can be calculated by the following formulas.

Perihelion = a ( 1 - e )
Aphelion = a ( 1 + e )

Where,

a is the Semi-Major Axis of the Earth's orbit around the Sun also known as the Average distance between the Sun and the Earth which is given by 149 million km.
e is the eccentricity of Earth's orbit around the Sun, which is approximately 0.017

Perihelion = 1.496 x `10^8` ( 1 - 0.017 )
Perihelion = 147.056 million km.

Aphelion = 1.496 ( 1 + 0.017 )
Aphelion = 152.14 million km.