Earth’s Orbit

Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 92.96 million mi. and one complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled 584 million mi. Ignoring the influence of other solar system bodies, Earth's orbit is an ellipse with the Earth-Sun barycenter as one focus and a current eccentricity of 0.0167; since this value is close to zero, the center of the orbit is close, relative to the size of the orbit, to the center of the Sun.
As seen from Earth, the planet's orbital prograde motion makes the Sun appear to move with respect to other stars at a rate of about 1° eastward per solar day (or a Sun or Moon diameter every 12 hours). Earth's orbital speed averages 66,616 mph, which is fast enough to cover the planet's diameter in 7 minutes and the distance to the Moon in 4 hours.
From a vantage point above the north pole of either the Sun or Earth, Earth would appear to revolve in a counterclockwise direction around the Sun. From the same vantage point, both the Earth and the Sun would appear to rotate also in a counterclockwise direction about their respective axes.

Type

Planetary Orbit

Location under

Star System Sector

Included Locations

• Earth