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By astronomical convention, the four seasons are determined by the solstices (the two points in the Earth's orbit of the maximum tilt of the Earth's axis, toward the Sun or away from the Sun) and the equinoxes (the two points in the Earth's orbit where the Earth's tilted axis and an imaginary line drawn from the Earth to the Sun are exactly ...
On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. [2] [3] [4] In temperate and polar regions, the seasons are marked by changes in the intensity of sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface, variations of which may cause animals to undergo hibernation or to migrate, and plants to be dormant ...
Given the different Sun incidence in different positions in the orbit, it is necessary to define a standard point of the orbit of the planet, to define the planet position in the orbit at each moment of the year w.r.t such point; this point is called with several names: vernal equinox, spring equinox, March equinox, all equivalent, and named considering northern hemisphere seasons.
The Earth's orbit approximates an ellipse. Eccentricity measures the departure of this ellipse from circularity. The shape of the Earth's orbit varies between nearly circular (theoretically the eccentricity can hit zero) and mildly elliptical (highest eccentricity was 0.0679 in the last 250 million years). [6] Its geometric or logarithmic mean ...
The Earth's orbit, with its axis tilted at 23.5 degrees, exhibits approximate axial parallelism, maintaining its direction towards Polaris (the "North Star") year-round. Together with the Earth's axial tilt , this is one of the primary reasons for the Earth's seasons , as illustrated by the diagram to the right.
The seasons (with the transition points of the June solstice, September equinox, December solstice, and March equinox) and Earth's orbit characteristics.. For an observer at the North Pole, the Sun reaches the highest position in the sky once a year in June.
] The Earth's axis of rotation tilts about 23.5 degrees, relative to the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. As the Earth orbits the Sun, this creates the 47° declination difference between the solstice sun paths, as well as the hemisphere-specific difference between summer and winter.
Earth's phase changes angle throughout the seasons due to Earth's axial tilt, here viewed from geostationary orbit. Among the most prominent features of the Moon's sky is Earth. Earth's angular diameter (1.9°) is four times the Moon's as seen from Earth, although because the Moon's orbit is eccentric, Earth's apparent size in the sky varies by ...