Ask A Scientist© Astronomy Archive

Author:      joey
When our Earth turns, do we move closer to the Sun?

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      rcwinther
When it is the middle of the night where you are, you are the farthest from
the Sun that you will be for that day.  As the Earth spins you toward
morning, you get closer and closer to the Sun; and at the middle of the day
you are the closest to the Sun that you will be for that day.  The differ-
ence between these two distances is very slight, compared with your average
distance from the Sun; even at the equator, where the effect is a maximum,
it is a difference of less than one part in 10,000.  This tiny difference
has nothing to do with why it is (usually) warmer in the daytime than in the
previous or following nights.
What I have described above is much easier to see using a globe than from
reading these words.  Check it out for yourself.
I am not certain if I have understood your question correctly.  It is also
true that, because the Earth's orbit is not perfectly circular but is,
instead, elliptic, that the Earth as a whole is farther from the Sun at some
times than at others.