Earth Reaches Aphelion on July 3, 2025, Influenced by Axis Tilt Rather Than Solar Distance

On July 3, 2025, at 3:54 pm ET, Earth will reach its aphelion—the farthest point from the Sun this year—at a distance of 152,087,738 kilometers (94,502,939 miles) from the Sun’s center. This is approximately 5.1 million kilometers (3.2 million miles) farther than its perihelion in early January, when the planet receives about 6.8% more solar radiation. Despite this greater distance, the Northern Hemisphere experiences summer because seasons are governed by the tilt of Earth's axis, not its proximity to the Sun. This year’s aphelion date is part of a slow shift due to gravitational influences from Jupiter and Saturn, gradually altering Earth’s orbital timing over centuries. Meanwhile, unrelated to Earth’s position in orbit, the planet has been spinning faster in 2025, leading to shorter days. July 5, 2024, recorded the shortest day since 1960 at 1.66 milliseconds less than 24 hours. In 2025, July 10 was the shortest day so far with a rotation 1.36 milliseconds shorter, and July 22 is expected to be the second shortest at 1.34 milliseconds less than 24 hours. This unprecedented acceleration of Earth’s spin has puzzled scientists and may require a negative leap second adjustment to atomic clocks by around 2029, a move never done before. Experts attribute long-term changes to lunar tidal friction but the recent acceleration remains unexplained. Scientists emphasize that the current heat is due to Earth’s axial tilt causing summer, not its distance from the Sun.