Today, the Earth is far from the Sun most of the year

If the Sun looks smaller than usual on July 4, it's not your feeling. Because, on July 4, the Earth will be the farthest away from the Sun this year.

The orbit around the Sun of the planets, including the Earth, is not a perfect circle. This was for the first time detailed in mathematics from the 17th century by German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

The size of the Sun will be about 3% smaller when viewed from the farthest point from the nearest point.

Astronomer Kepler discovered that the orbits of planets in the Solar System are elliptical. This means there will be a point where the planet is closest to the Sun and a planet farthest from the Sun, astronomer Mark Hammergren, of the Adler Planetarium, Chicago, USA.

On July 4, our planet will be at the farthest point - 152,102,196 km - from the Sun. This year, the Earth passes through the point at a distance from the nearest Sun on January 3, when our planet is 149,597,870 km from the Sun.

On average, the Earth is nearly 5 million kilometers away when it is at the farthest point from the closest point from the Sun - about 3%. This means the size of the Sun will be about 3% smaller when viewed from the farthest point from the nearest point, but you may not notice this difference with the naked eye.