The Earth is exactly 1 astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun by definition. This distance is approximately 149,597,870.7 kilometers (about 93 million miles)
. The AU represents the average distance between the Earth and the Sun because Earth's orbit is elliptical, so the distance varies slightly over the course of a year
. In summary:
- 1 AU = average Earth-Sun distance
- 1 AU ≈ 149.6 million kilometers (93 million miles)
- This unit is used as a standard measure to describe distances within the solar system
