Do planets get hotter and colder as they orbit the Sun?

Yes, but for the Earth, this is not the effect that dominates in the well-known seasonal cycle of temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. For th Earth, its mean distance from the Sun is 93 million miles or 149.6 million kilometers. The orbital eccentricity is 0.01 so that at perihelion the Earth is a few million miles closer to the sun in the Northern Hemisphere winter, than it is when it is at aphelion in the Northern Hemisphere summer. This translates to less than a degree or so temperature change at the Earth, compared to the 20 degree temperature changes common to the Winter-Summer seasonal variation. If it weren't for the atmosphere and the tilt of the Earth's axis, only the orbital distance change would matter. Lucky us!


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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