The Earth will reach its maximum speed this Wednesday in orbit around the Sun, that is, the Earth will reach the perihelion of its orbit today. This means that our planet will be at the closest point to the Sun on its path.
Today the Earth will reach an average speed of 107,280 km/h, but when it is at perihelion, the speed will increase to 110,700 km/h.
Perihelion takes Earth to 107,280 kilometers per hour
In astronomy, perihelion, which comes from peri (around, near) and helium (Sun), is the point in the orbit of a body, be it planet, dwarf planet, asteroid or comet, that is closest to the Sun. Thus, when a body is at perihelion, it has the highest speed of translation of its entire orbit.
When the Earth is at perihelion at a distance of about 147 million kilometers from the Sun, the speed will increase to a maximum value of 110,700km/h.
When the Earth is at the furthest point from the Sun, called aphelion, it will be 152 million kilometers away and has a speed of 103,536km/h. This scenario will only happen on the 6th of July.
The reason for this breakneck speed is due to its elliptical orbit. Our planet has an oval path in which the Sun is not exactly in the center.
It was by the hand of the mathematician Johannes Kepler, who, thanks to the notes of one of his teachers, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, noticed the Earth's elliptical orbit.
The scientist redefined some calculations and the result became known as Kepler's first law: "The planets describe elliptical orbits around the Sun, which occupies one of the foci of the ellipse".
However, the mathematician went further and in Kepler's second law declared that "the line joining one of the planets to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times". This explanation is important for understanding how the speed of a planet varies at different points in its orbit and how its speed increases the closer it is to the star.
