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  2. Axial tilt - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt

    The axial tilt is defined as the angle between the direction of the positive pole and the normal to the orbital plane. The angles for Earth, Uranus, and Venus are approximately 23°, 97°, and 177° respectively. In astronomy, axial tilt, also known as obliquity, is the angle between an object's rotational axis and its orbital axis, which is ...

  3. Axial precession - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession

    Precessional movement of Earth. Earth rotates (white arrows) once a day around its rotational axis (red); this axis itself rotates slowly (white circle), completing a rotation in approximately 26,000 years [1] In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational ...

  4. Earth's rotation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_rotation

    Earth's rotation. Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise. The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North ...

  5. Milankovitch cycles - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles

    Vostok ice core (Antarctica) Vertical gray line shows present (2000 CE) Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term was coined and named after the Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković.

  6. Equatorial bulge - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_bulge

    Equatorial bulge. An equatorial bulge is a difference between the equatorial and polar diameters of a planet, due to the centrifugal force exerted by the rotation about the body's axis. A rotating body tends to form an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere. Comparison between an oblate spheroid and sphere.

  7. Chandler wobble - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_wobble

    The Chandler wobble or Chandler variation of latitude is a small deviation in the Earth 's axis of rotation relative to the solid earth, [1] which was discovered by and named after American astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler in 1891. It amounts to change of about 9 metres (30 ft) in the point at which the axis intersects the Earth's surface and has ...

  8. Analemma - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma

    In astronomy, an analemma (/ ˌænəˈlɛmə /; from Ancient Greek ἀνάλημμα (analēmma) 'support') [a] is a diagram showing the position of the Sun in the sky as seen from a fixed location on Earth at the same mean solar time, as that position varies over the course of a year. The diagram resembles a figure eight.

  9. Earth - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth

    Earth is rounded into an ellipsoid with a circumference of about 40,000 km. It is the densest planet in the Solar System. Of the four rocky planets, it is the largest and most massive. Earth is about eight light-minutes away from the Sun and orbits it, taking a year (about 365.25 days) to complete one revolution.