For observers on Earth, the sun appears as a bright, familiar disk—but what we see is only half the story. Like the moon, one half of the sun is permanently hidden from our direct view: the far side ...

Every year in early January, Earth reaches the closest point in its orbit to the Sun, a moment astronomers call perihelion. We are slightly nearer to our star and receiving more solar energy than we ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. Earth is today at aphelion, the point in its orbit at which ...