Earth’s orbit around the sun is not exactly a circle, but is slightly elliptical, or egg-shaped. Once a year, Earth reaches its closest point to the sun. The closest point to the sun for an orbiting body is called perihelion. On January 4 at 12:00 p.m., Earth will reach its closest point to the sun in its slightly non-circular orbit. At perihelion, the Earth will be only 91.4 million miles away from the sun. The average distance from the Earth to the sun is 93 million miles.