Happy Perihelion Day

[William Seger]

Earth closest to sun on January 2-3. If things seem a little hectic this time or year, maybe it's because we're also at max orbital speed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Also, as they note, we are experiencing the latest sunrise of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere.

The earliest sunsets were around December 7.

Happy earliest sunset of the year: December 7

There was too much cloud cover to see Venus this a.m. I made sure to see Mercury as many times as I could last month. I doubt I can see it anymore.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Thanks for posting that.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

3. The Sun isn't quite at the center of a planet's elliptical orbit.

https://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/physics/mechanics/orbit/ellipse.html

The Sun isn't quite at the center of a planet's elliptical orbit. An ellipse has a point a little bit away from the center called the "focus". The Sun is at the focus of the ellipse. Because the Sun is at the focus, not the center, of the ellipse, the planet moves closer to and further away from the Sun every orbit. The close point in each orbit is called perihelion. The far away point is called aphelion.

[byronius]

8. "Brought to you by the National Earth Science Teachers Association."

My god! Posting radical science links with animations and MATH!! Apostasy! Summon the Dementors!

That was an interesting link. Learned stuff I'd forgotten.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

9. My favorite mathematical fact about earth's orbit:

Equal areas of arc are swept in equal times about the sun by the earth. Kepler's second law:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler%27s_laws_of_planetary_motion

[3catwoman3]

4. I will take some cosmic/karmic joy in our precious planet being...

...at this closet-to-the-sun pont on the same day that the Democrats take over the House - LET THE SUN SHINE IN!!!

[krispos42]

5. And time is moving just a hair slower

Thanks to relativity.

[LakeSuperiorView]

6. The last two years have seemed like forever...

The relativistic slowdown is dwarfed by Trump slowdown...

[byronius]

7. Useful Knowledge.