Question

Question #eac2e

Answer 1

It varies, because we move in an elliptical orbit, but about 150 million km.

Explanation:

We are roughly 3% closer during the northern hemisphere’s winter (3rd of Jan is often quoted as ‘perihelion’ at the moment) when we are `1.471 xx 10^11` m from the Sun. 6 months later we orbit at `1.521 xx 10^11` m so not a massive difference, but constantly changing.

We have devised a unit of measurement called the astronomical unit (AU), which is the average distance from the sun to the Earth. It is 149597870700 m. So the distance from the Earth to the sun is 1 AU.