One misconception ‒ at least for inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere ‒ is that seasons on Earth are a result of the distance between the Earth and the sun, with the warmer months being wrongly attributed to a decreased distance to our parent star.

This would, however, fail to explain why the Southern Hemisphere experiences the exact opposite effect, with a warmer December and a colder June.

Indeed, seasons have nothing to do with Earth’s distance from the sun and all to do with Earth’s axial tilt of approximately 23 degrees. Due to this axial tilt, the Northern Hemisphere experiences its longest day, with the sun reaching a higher altitude in the sky, in June, while the Southern Hemisphere experiences its longest day in December.

The Earth follows a slight elliptical orbit around the sun, meaning that it does not retain the same distance from the sun at all times. However, the closest point in the Earth’s orbit (perihelion) around the sun actually occurs in January, when it is five million kilometres closer to the sun than it is at its farthest point from the sun (aphelion) in July.