In today's image, we see a circle around the Sun in the form of a 22 degrees halo caused by ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere. The planet Earth also circles the Sun, but in an elliptical orbit which causes its distance to change slightly over the year. A bit over a week ago, Earth was at its closest to the Sun, what we call perihelion.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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