Muscat: At that moment, the distance between the centres of the Earth and the Sun will be around 152.1 million kilometres, or approximately 1.0167 astronomical units.

Wisal bint Salem Al-Hinai, Head of the Community Outreach Committee at the Omani Society for Astronomy and Space, said aphelion is an annual astronomical event that usually occurs in early July.

She explained that the phenomenon occurs because Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not a perfect circle, but slightly elliptical, with an eccentricity of about 0.0167, in line with the laws of planetary motion described by Johannes Kepler.

Al-Hinai noted that Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun, known as perihelion, in early January each year. During perihelion, the distance between the two is about 147 million kilometres, around five million kilometres closer than at aphelion.

She stressed that the event also helps correct a common misconception linking summer heat and winter cold to Earth’s distance from the Sun.

“The seasons are mainly caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis, which is about 23.5 degrees relative to its orbit around the Sun, rather than the changing distance between Earth and the Sun,” she said.

During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun’s rays fall more directly on the region and remain above the horizon for longer hours, increasing the amount of solar energy received at the surface and raising temperatures. The opposite happens during winter.

According to Al-Hinai, the annual difference in Earth-Sun distance has only a limited effect, amounting to around 3 per cent compared with the average distance of 149.6 million kilometres.

She said aphelion offers an opportunity to strengthen public awareness of astronomy and promote accurate scientific understanding of seasonal changes and other celestial phenomena.