Perihelion 2014!

If you're feeling particularly chummy with the Sun today, like you two seem really close for some reason, then you may be right: Today at 12:00 UTC (07:00 EST) the Earth is at perihelion, the point in its orbit when it's closest to the Sun. At that time, the center of the Earth is 147,104,780 kilometers (91,406,672 miles) from the Sun. The Earth's orbit is an ellipse, so sometimes we're farther from the Sun and sometimes closest (the farthest point is called aphelion). The average distance of th...