<P> According to Kepler's first law of planetary motion, all planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System have approximately elliptical orbits around the Sun . It is only approximate because of perturbations due to the gravity of other bodies . Every ellipse has two focus points, and the Sun is at one of these focus points for the elliptical orbits of its satellites . Hence, an orbiting body has a closest and a farthest point from its parent object, that is, a perihelion and an aphelion . Each extreme is known as an apsis . </P> <P> Orbital eccentricity measures the flatness (departure from a perfect circle) of the orbit . </P> <P> Earth is about 147.1 million kilometers (91.4 million miles) from the Sun at perihelion around January 3, in contrast to about 152.1 million kilometers (94.5 million miles) at aphelion around July 4--a difference of about 5.0 million kilometers (3.1 million miles). (These dates change over time due to precession and other orbital factors, which follow cyclical patterns known as Milankovitch cycles . For a table of these dates for various years, see Apsis .) </P> <P> Because of the increased distance at aphelion, only 93.55% of the solar radiation from the Sun falls on a given area of land as does at perihelion . However, this fluctuation does not account for the seasons, as it is summer in the northern hemisphere when it is winter in the southern hemisphere and vice versa . Instead, seasons result from the tilt of Earth's axis, which is 23.4 degrees away from perpendicular to the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun . Winter falls on the hemisphere where sunlight strikes least directly, and summer falls where sunlight strikes most directly, regardless of the Earth's distance from the Sun . </P>

When the earth is at its greatest distance from the sun