How far is the Sun today?
·Today, September 4, 2026, figure for 02:00 UTC September 5, 2026, center of Earth to center of Sun, rounded to 10 km. Rewritten every morning.
The Sun is about 150,846,210 km from Earth today, 1.0083 astronomical units, closing by about 35,550 km a day. Sunlight leaving the Sun now takes 8 minutes 23 seconds to arrive. The next perihelion (closest point of the year) is Sunday, January 3, 2027, 02:08 UTC at 147,104,260 km, 120 days away. The next aphelion (farthest point) is Monday, July 5, 2027, 05:04 UTC at 152,100,480 km, 303 days away.
Earth's orbit is very nearly a circle, but not quite. Over a year the distance to the Sun runs from about 147.1 million km in early January to about 152.1 million km in early July, a swing of 3.3 percent. The figure above is today's, computed for 02:00 UTC from center of Earth to center of Sun and rewritten every morning. Below are the next perihelion and aphelion, then every one for the next five years.
What is the average distance to the Sun?
149,597,870.7 km exactly, which is the definition of the astronomical unit fixed by the International Astronomical Union in 2012. In miles that is about 92.96 million. Sunlight takes 8 minutes 19 seconds to cover the average distance, 8 minutes 10 seconds at perihelion and 8 minutes 27 seconds at aphelion. What you see when you look at the Sun is how it looked eight minutes ago.
What are perihelion and aphelion?
Perihelion is Earth's closest approach to the Sun in a given orbit, aphelion its farthest point. They fall about two weeks after the December and June solstices, in early January and early July, and the dates drift later by about one day every 58 years as the orbit's ellipse slowly rotates. Earth's orbital eccentricity is 0.0167, which is why the two distances differ by only about 5 million km. Because Earth moves fastest at perihelion, the half of the orbit around January is covered in about 179 days and the half around July in about 186, one reason northern-hemisphere summer is a few days longer than winter.
When are the perihelions and aphelions for the next five years?
| Event | Date and time (UTC) | Distance (km) |
|---|---|---|
| Perihelion | Sat, Jan 3, 2026, 16:42 | 147,099,800 |
| Aphelion | Mon, Jul 6, 2026, 18:00 | 152,088,060 |
| Perihelion | Sun, Jan 3, 2027, 02:08 | 147,104,260 |
| Aphelion | Mon, Jul 5, 2027, 05:04 | 152,100,480 |
| Perihelion | Wed, Jan 5, 2028, 12:45 | 147,099,820 |
| Aphelion | Mon, Jul 3, 2028, 22:38 | 152,093,460 |
| Perihelion | Tue, Jan 2, 2029, 18:50 | 147,098,300 |
| Aphelion | Fri, Jul 6, 2029, 05:13 | 152,098,350 |
| Perihelion | Thu, Jan 3, 2030, 11:00 | 147,105,880 |
| Aphelion | Thu, Jul 4, 2030, 12:59 | 152,099,430 |
Grayed rows have already passed. Distances are center to center, rounded to 10 km. Instants can differ from other published tables by up to about an hour; see the method note below.
Does distance from the Sun cause the seasons?
No. Earth is closest to the Sun in the first week of January, which is the middle of northern winter. The seasons come from the 23.4 degree tilt of Earth's axis, which changes how high the Sun climbs and how long it stays up. Distance does matter a little: Earth receives about 6.9 percent more sunlight per square metre at perihelion than at aphelion. That slightly softens southern-hemisphere winters and sharpens southern summers, but the effect is small next to the tilt, and the oceans of the southern hemisphere smooth it further.
How much does the Sun's apparent size change?
About 3.4 percent between perihelion and aphelion, from roughly 32.5 to 31.5 arcminutes across. The eye cannot tell, but it matters for eclipses. A total solar eclipse needs the Moon's disc to cover the Sun's, so a July eclipse, with a smaller Sun, has an easier time going total than a January one. That is part of why the August 2, 2027 eclipse over Egypt can run to 6 minutes 23 seconds: the Sun is near its smallest and the Moon is near perigee at the same time.
How are these numbers computed?
Distances and instants on this page come from the Astronomy Engine ephemeris library, run each morning by the same job that rewrites the rest of the site. The perihelion and aphelion table was checked against Fred Espenak's catalog at astropixels.com and the US Naval Observatory. Dates match on every row and distances agree within about 900 km, well under a thousandth of a percent, so distances are rounded to 10 km. The instants can differ from those tables by up to about 50 minutes. That is not noise: the Moon pulls Earth's center about 4,700 km around the Earth-Moon center of mass each month, and the exact minute of closest approach depends on whether a calculation tracks Earth's center or that shared center of mass. The distance curve is so flat at perihelion that the difference between the two is a matter of minutes on the clock and a few hundred kilometres in distance.
Quick answers.
How far is the Sun from Earth right now?
Today's figure is at the top of this page, computed for 02:00 UTC and rewritten every morning. The average is 149.6 million km; the range over a year is about 147.1 to 152.1 million km.
How long does sunlight take to reach Earth?
8 minutes 19 seconds at average distance. The live block above gives today's exact light time.
When is Earth closest to the Sun?
At perihelion, in the first week of January each year. The exact date and time for the coming years are in the table above.