The Distance between Earth and Sun  is changing
Channel: J-tech Academy
Date: 2022-12-04

You might not realize that the sun's orbit around the Earth is constantly changing because of how predictably it sweeps across the sky. Actually, there is seasonal variation in the average distance between Earth and the sun. So, do we know whether Earth is moving toward or away from the sun? And what forces are causing this to occur on our planet and our star?

So sit back and watch as we reveal the answer to this question.

 As time passes, the sun is moving away from Earth. According to NASA, Earth's average distance from the sun is around 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) (opens in new tab). Its orbit is slightly elliptical, or oval-shaped; it is not entirely circular.
According to NASA, this indicates that Earth's distance from the sun can vary between 91.4 million and 94.5 million miles (147.1 million and 152.1 million kilometers).
The distance between Earth and the sun is still generally increasing over time. There are two main causes of this expanding distance. The sun is losing mass, for one. The other is caused by the same factors that influence Earth's tides.

THE SUN IS SHRINKING
Einstein's famous equation E = mc2 is used in the nuclear fusion reactions that generate the solar energy to change matter into energy. The sun continuously loses mass while also continuously generating energy. The sun will lose about 0.1% of its total mass before it starts to die over the course of its remaining lifetime, which is predicted to be around 5 billion years, according to models of how stars evolve over time, said Brian DiGiorgio, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in an email to Live Science.

Although 0.1% might not seem like much, DiGiorgio added, "this is a lot of mass." It has a mass that is comparable to Jupiter's.
The Exploratorium in California estimates that Jupiter is around 318 times as massive as Earth.

The mass of an object determines how strong its gravitational attraction is. According to DiGiorgio, as the sun loses mass, its gravitational pull on Earth weakens, causing our planet to move away from our star by around 2.36 inches (6 cm) per year. 

According to DiGiorgio, "this is quite minor, especially when compared to the normal variation in Earth's orbital distance that occurs because of its somewhat elliptical orbit — roughly 3%.
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