The Earth’s Revolution
The Earth’s Revolution
As we have learned in previous units, the earth belongs to the solar system. This is the system of planets, asteroids,meteoroids, comets, stellar dust and gases that orbit the sun.
Each orbit by a member of the solar system is its revolution. A revolution is also called a year. The Earth takes365.25 day to revolve around the sun. It is during this year or revolution that brings Earth it’s seasons.
The sun, although it is in the middle of the Earth’s orbit, it is not in the exact center of the Earth’s orbit. The distance of the Earth from the sun varies as the Earth revolves around the sun. At its closest point the Earth is about 91,000,000 miles from the sun, and 95,000,000 miles from the sun at its farthest point. This makes the mean distance of the Earth from the Sun about 93,000,000 miles.What may seem strange to people in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth is that the Earth is closest to the sun in the winter and farthest from the sun in the summer.
There are two types of Earth revolution: around its axis and around the Sun. The Earth revolves around the Sun once every 365.242199 mean solar days(that’s why we have leap years). The Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of 108,000 km/h. It revolves(rotates) on its axis once during an approximate 24 hours. The actual day is not exactly 24 hours, but that is the stuff for another article(there will be a link to it at the end of this one).
The Earth is never in the same exact same position from day to day. It moves closer to, and further away from, the Sun. Earth’s perihelion(147,098,074 km) occurs around January 3, and the aphelion around July 4 (152,097,701 km) . The changing Earth-Sun distance results in an increase of about 6.9% in solar energy reaching the Earth at perihelion as related to aphelion. The southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun at about the same time that the Earth reaches the closest approach to the Sun, so the southern hemisphere receives slightly more
As we have learned in previous units, the earth belongs to the solar system. This is the system of planets, asteroids,meteoroids, comets, stellar dust and gases that orbit the sun.
Each orbit by a member of the solar system is its revolution. A revolution is also called a year. The Earth takes365.25 day to revolve around the sun. It is during this year or revolution that brings Earth it’s seasons.
The sun, although it is in the middle of the Earth’s orbit, it is not in the exact center of the Earth’s orbit. The distance of the Earth from the sun varies as the Earth revolves around the sun. At its closest point the Earth is about 91,000,000 miles from the sun, and 95,000,000 miles from the sun at its farthest point. This makes the mean distance of the Earth from the Sun about 93,000,000 miles.What may seem strange to people in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth is that the Earth is closest to the sun in the winter and farthest from the sun in the summer.
There are two types of Earth revolution: around its axis and around the Sun. The Earth revolves around the Sun once every 365.242199 mean solar days(that’s why we have leap years). The Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of 108,000 km/h. It revolves(rotates) on its axis once during an approximate 24 hours. The actual day is not exactly 24 hours, but that is the stuff for another article(there will be a link to it at the end of this one).
The Earth is never in the same exact same position from day to day. It moves closer to, and further away from, the Sun. Earth’s perihelion(147,098,074 km) occurs around January 3, and the aphelion around July 4 (152,097,701 km) . The changing Earth-Sun distance results in an increase of about 6.9% in solar energy reaching the Earth at perihelion as related to aphelion. The southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun at about the same time that the Earth reaches the closest approach to the Sun, so the southern hemisphere receives slightly more