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  2. Earth's rotation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_rotation

    The South Pole is the other point where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface, in Antarctica. Earth rotates once in about 24 hours with respect to the Sun, but once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds with respect to other distant stars . Earth's rotation is slowing slightly with time; thus, a day was shorter in the past.

  3. Earth's orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_orbit

    Ignoring the influence of other Solar System bodies, Earth's orbit, also called Earth's revolution, is an ellipse with the Earth–Sun barycenter as one focus with a current eccentricity of 0.0167. Since this value is close to zero, the center of the orbit is relatively close to the center of the Sun (relative to the size of the orbit).

  4. Rotation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation

    A sphere rotating (spinning) about an axis. Rotation or rotational motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as an axis of rotation.A plane figure can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise sense around a perpendicular axis intersecting anywhere inside or outside the figure at a center of rotation.

  5. Orbit of the Moon - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon

    Apsidal precession—The major axis of Moon's elliptical orbit rotates by one complete revolution once every 8.85 years in the same direction as the Moon's rotation itself. This image looks upwards depicting Earth's geographic south pole and the elliptical shape of the Moon's orbit (vastly exaggerated from its almost circular shape to make the ...

  6. Orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit

    An animation showing a low eccentricity orbit (near-circle, in red), and a high eccentricity orbit (ellipse, in purple). In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object [1] such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such ...

  7. Rotation period (astronomy) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_period_(astronomy)

    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 ...

  8. Orbital period - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_period

    The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy , it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun , moons orbiting planets, exoplanets orbiting other stars , or binary stars .

  9. Milankovitch cycles - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles

    The Earth's rotation around its axis, and revolution around the Sun, evolve over time due to gravitational interactions with other bodies in the Solar System. The variations are complex, but a few cycles are dominant.