By how much does the distance between the earth and sun change?
As the planets orbit the sun by how much does this change our distance from the sun due to gravitational effects of the other planets, and has anyone worked out the closest and furthest we can get as our orbit is warped by the other planets?
As the planets orbit the sun by how much does this change our distance from the sun due to gravitational effects of the other planets, and has anyone worked out the closest and furthest we can get as our orbit is warped by the other planets?
1 Answer
Dec 17, 2015
About 5,000,000 kilometers.
Explanation:
The Earth's perihelion distance is about 147,098,000 kilometers and its aphelion distance is about 152,098,000 kilometers. So, the change in distance is about 5,000,000 kilometers.
Actually this is a bit too simplistic as the Earth's orbit undergoes precession and it is also perturbed by the gravitational pull of the other planets. For example the 2015 perihelion distance was 147,096,203.90 kilometers and the 2016 perihelion distance will be 147,100,175.85 kilometers.
