The Earth will reach its maximum speed today – MonitorExpresso.com

World. On January 3 of this year, the greatest annual distance between the Earth and the Sun, known as perihelion, will occur. This results in an above-average maximum orbital speed of 3,420 kilometers per hour. By then, we’ll be just over 147 million kilometers from the Sun, or about 5 million kilometers less than the moment of maximum distance (aphelion), which will occur on July 5, 2024, according to the observatory. National Observatory of Spain (OAN).
The Earth revolves around the Sun in an elliptical orbit of 930 million kilometers at an average speed of 107,280 kilometers per hour, which means that it takes 365 days and almost 6 hours, so every four years there is a leap year, e.g. The year 2024.
But according to Kepler’s second law, this speed of translation changes, gradually increasing at perihelion (closest distance from the Sun, 110,700 kilometers per hour) until it reaches a maximum value, and decreasing at aphelion to 103.1,536 kilometers per hour. , the speed difference is more than 7000 kilometers per hour.
According to Earth Sky, perihelion in 2024 will occur around 7:00 p.m. Central Time on January 3 at a distance of just over 147 million kilometers. At aphelion, Earth is about 5 million kilometers from us.
Kepler realized that the lines connecting the planets and the sun cover the same area at the same time. This means that when planets are closer to the Sun in their orbits, they move faster than when they are farther from the Sun.
Therefore, the farther a planet is from the Sun, the slower its orbital velocity, and the closer it is to the Sun, the faster its orbital velocity. The average distance to the sun is 150 million kilometers on average. At aphelion it reaches 152.09 million kilometers, but at perihelion it decreases to 147.1 million kilometers.

Original source in Spanish