How far is the Sun from Earth? Distance, closest point and sunlight time

The Sun is about 150 million km (93 million miles) from Earth, NASA says. Astronomers use this distance as a unit: 1 astronomical unit (au) is exactly 149,597,870.7 km, as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) fixed in 2012. Earth's real distance changes a little through the year, because its orbit is not a perfect circle.

Distances are between the centres of Earth and the Sun. In 2027 the gap changes by about 5.0 million km (3.1 million miles) between January and July.

How far is the Sun from Earth today?

At 00:00 UTC on 17 October 2026, Earth was about 149.1 million km from the Sun, according to NASA JPL Horizons. The distance is shrinking: Earth reaches its closest point, perihelion, on 3 January 2027 at 02:07 UTC (147,104,259 km), and its farthest point, aphelion, on 5 July 2027 at 05:04 UTC (152,100,475 km), in our calculation with Astronomy Engine.

The distance on the first day of each month (00:00 UTC):

The animation below shows a whole year. Earth also moves a little faster when it is closer to the Sun: about 30.29 km per second at perihelion against 29.3 km per second at aphelion.

Closest in January, farthest in July: why is January cold in the north?

Many people expect Earth to be closest to the Sun in summer. It is the other way round for the northern half of the world: Earth is closest in early January and farthest in early July. NASA explains that "Earth's tilted axis causes the seasons", and that Earth's distance from the Sun "is not the cause of the seasons". When the North Pole tilts toward the Sun, NASA explains, "there is more sunlight reaching the northern half of the planet" and it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere; in the Southern Hemisphere it is then winter. In January the North Pole tilts away. Then the midday Sun stays low in the sky, so each beam of sunlight spreads over more ground, and the days are short, as a NASA Goddard explainer by David Stern describes. Together that means less solar heating in the north, even though Earth is at its closest.

The distance does make a small difference you can measure. In January the Sun looks about 3.4% wider than in July (32.52 against 31.45 arcminutes in NASA JPL Horizons; an arcminute is 1/60 of a degree). And because sunlight spreads out with distance, sunlight reaching the top of Earth's atmosphere is about 6.9% stronger at perihelion than at aphelion, for the same area facing the Sun, in our calculation. Never look at the Sun directly to compare: that can damage your eyes.

How long does sunlight take to reach Earth?

About 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Light travels at 299,792.458 km per second, so it needs 8 min 19 s to cross 1 au, in our calculation. Using the centre-to-centre distances in our tables, the light-crossing time ranges from about 8 min 11 s at perihelion to 8 min 27 s at aphelion. Sunlight actually starts at the Sun's visible surface, about 700,000 km closer to us than its centre, which saves about 2 seconds. Either way, when you see the Sun, you see it as it was about 8 minutes ago.

The animation below shows how long light takes to cover Mercury's and Venus's average distances from the Sun, and then 1 au to Earth, played 30 times faster. The markers show distances, not where the planets really are.

How far is each planet from the Sun?

NASA's Planetary Fact Sheet lists the average distance of each planet from the Sun. In order from the Sun, with our conversions to miles, au and light time:

The outer planets are far apart: Neptune is about 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. Mars' distance from Earth changes even more than its distance from the Sun; see our Mars distance article. For the Moon, see how far the Moon is from Earth.

How long would it take to get to the Sun?

No spacecraft can land on the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched on 12 August 2018, and on 24 December 2024 it made what NASA called "Humanity's Closest Encounter with the Sun": it passed "just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun", moving at "a blazing 430,000 miles per hour", NASA says: "faster than any human-made object has ever moved". That pass came about 6.4 years after launch, in our calculation; how long a trip takes depends on the spacecraft and its route.

For comparison, imaginary straight-line trips over 1 au at a constant speed (our arithmetic):

Sun distance FAQ

What is the exact distance from the Sun to the Earth? It changes every moment. On 17 October 2026 at 00:00 UTC it was 149,117,144 km. The astronomical unit, 149,597,870.7 km, is a fixed unit close to Earth's average distance: in 2012 the IAU defined 1 au as exactly 149,597,870,700 metres.

What is Earth's closest distance to the Sun? At perihelion, about 147.1 million km. The next is on 3 January 2027, at 147,104,259 km (91,406,349 miles), in our calculation.

How many light minutes is Earth from the Sun? About 8.3 light minutes on average: 8 min 19 s at 1 au.

How far is the Sun in light years? Only a tiny fraction of a light year: 1 au is about 0.0000158 light years.

What is the order of the planets from the Sun? Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (see the table above).

What would happen if the Sun was 1 inch closer to Earth? Nothing you would notice. Earth's distance to the Sun already changes by about 5.0 million km every year, and NASA says that distance is not what causes the seasons.

How long would it take light to travel around the Earth? About 0.134 seconds for the length of the equator (about 40,074 km, from NASA's equatorial diameter of 12,756 km), in our calculation.

How big is the Sun? NASA gives a diameter of about 865,000 miles (1.4 million km), and says "it would take 1.3 million Earths to fill the Sun's volume".

How we checked

The Earth-Sun distance on each day and the Sun's apparent size come from NASA JPL Horizons (the Sun seen from Earth's centre, daily from 2025 to 2028). We calculated perihelion and aphelion, Earth's orbital speed, the seasons in the animation and the year animation itself with Astronomy Engine 2.1.19. The definition of the au comes from the IAU's 2012 resolution, the general Sun facts and size from NASA's Sun facts (updated 17 September 2026), the seasons explanation from NASA Space Place and NASA Goddard's "The Sky Above Us" (David P. Stern), the planet distances from NASA's Planetary Fact Sheet (updated 18 March 2025) and the Parker Solar Probe facts from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (27 December 2024).

Light times use the speed of light, 299,792.458 km per second. The extra-sunlight figure assumes that sunlight weakens with the square of the distance, which is a simplification. The photos are NASA images; NASA says its images are generally not subject to copyright in the United States, and we credit each one. The animations, charts and diagrams are our own, made from these numbers. None of the images or videos is AI-generated.