Kepler’s Law Question: The Earth is closer to the sun in the winter than in the summer, according to Kepler’s law. If this is the case, wouldn’t the winter be warmer than the summer?
Answer: The reason for summer and winter is not because of the distance from the earth to the sun. It is due how the earth’s axis of rotation is tilted.
When it is summer in North America, it is winter in South America and the other way around. The reason is that the amount of energy hitting the earth’s surface from the sun depends on the angle the sun’s energy is coming from – the higher in the sky the sun is, the more that angle is close to vertical, and the more energy we are getting. This is a much stronger effect than the few percent change due to the distance from the sun changing, especially when you live pretty far form the equator. — Arthur Smith
Today I learned what day the earth is furthest from the sun
