A Meteosat-9 satellite image from December 21, 2010, beautifully illustrates how sunlight illuminated Earth on a solstice day.
The Earth’s solstices come twice a year. For the Northern Hemisphere, the summer (June) solstice occurs around June 20-21, and the winter (December) solstice happens around December 21-22.
At the solstice, the Sun’s path appears farthest north or south, depending on which half of the planet you are on. Seasons change on Earth because the planet is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the Sun.
Earth’s axis may be imagined as an imaginary pole going right through the center of our planet from “top” to “bottom.” Earth spins around this pole, making one complete turn each day. That is why we have day and night.
This image was taken with the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on EUMETSAT’s Meteosat-9 captured this view of Earth from geosynchronous orbit, and shows how sunlight fell on the Earth on December 21, 2010.
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1 Comment
Where our planet’s poles are changing ( North Pole moving into a place to Serbia.
Where our latitude and longitude goin to change because of it .
The question is how’s that going to effect the seasons?