Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Neptune (red arc) completes one orbit around the Sun (centre) for every 164.79 orbits of Earth. The light blue dot represents Uranus. The average distance between Neptune and the Sun is 4.5 billion km (about 30.1 astronomical units (AU), the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun), and it completes an orbit on average every 164.79 years ...
In this frame of reference, Earth's rotation is close to constant, but the stars appear to rotate slowly with a period of about 25,800 years. It is also in this frame of reference that the tropical year (or solar year), the year related to Earth's seasons, represents one orbit of Earth around the Sun. The precise definition of a sidereal day is ...
Earth's rotation axis moves with respect to the fixed stars (inertial space); the components of this motion are precession and nutation. It also moves with respect to Earth's crust; this is called polar motion. Precession is a rotation of Earth's rotation axis, caused primarily by external torques from the gravity of the Sun, Moon and other bodies.
Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth and slightly larger than Neptune. [a] Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of 30.1 astronomical units (4.50 × 10 9 km).
This definition is independent of the object's direction of rotation about its axis. This implies that an object's direction of rotation, when viewed from above its north pole, may be either clockwise or counterclockwise. The direction of rotation exhibited by most objects in the solar system (including Sun and Earth) is counterclockwise.
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
Rotation period with respect to distant stars, the sidereal rotation period (compared to Earth's mean Solar days) Synodic rotation period (mean Solar day) Apparent rotational period viewed from Earth Sun [i] 25.379995 days (Carrington rotation) 35 days (high latitude) 25 d 9 h 7 m 11.6 s 35 d ~28 days (equatorial) [2] Mercury: 58.6462 days [3 ...
The axis of this torque is roughly perpendicular to the axis of the Earth's rotation so the axis of rotation precesses. If the Earth were a perfect sphere, there would be no precession. This average torque is perpendicular to the direction in which the rotation axis is tilted away from the ecliptic pole, so that it does not change the axial ...