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Understanding solstices
The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted about 23. degrees relative to Earth's orbit around the sun. This tilt causes the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to get unequal amounts of sunlight over a year.
The Earth's axis is tilted most closely toward the sun for two moments each year. These are called solstices. The Northern Hemisphere is tilted more toward the sun from September to March, which feels like autumn and winter. The hemisphere tilted most toward our home star sees its longest day and the hemisphere tilted away from the sun sees its longest night.
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Misconceptions about the solstices
- The solstices mark the brightest and darkest days of the year, but the temperatures don't reflect that because it takes time for Earth's land and water to heat up and cool down.
- Some believe that since Earth's rotation is slowing down, each new solstice sets a new record for daytime ...
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Celebrating the solstice
Cultures around the world have devised ways to celebrate and revere celestial events.
- Stonehenge, a 5,000-year-old monument, has a famously special relationship with the solstices. On the summer solstice, the complex’s Heel Stone, which stands outside Stonehenge’s main circle, lines up...
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Summer and winter solstices
This year, the northern summer solstice falls on June 21 at 5:13 am EDT (June 21 at 9:13 UT).
Solstices occur simultaneously around the world, but their local times vary with time zones.
Traditionally, summer and winter solstices helped mark the changing of the seasons. Today, meteor...
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Orbit an rotation
As mars orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 24,6 hours, which is very similar to one day on Earth (23.9 hours). Martian days are called sols—short for "solar day." A year on Mars lasts 669.6 sols, which is the same as 687 Earth days.
Mars' axis of rotation is tilted 25 degrees w...
The cause of an equinox
In layman's terms, the equinox happens because the planet earth is not tilted towards the sun while the sun is directly above the equator. This causes the equinox to happen.
So during this time of the year, both hemispheres get the same hours of daylight and night.
On a usual basis,...
The Vernal Equinox
Before the invention of calendars and other modern methods of tracking years and seasons, people relied on the position of the sun in the sky and obvious signs in nature to indicate the passing of time.
When the equator and the hemispheres of the Earth became common kn...
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