![]() ![]() It usually happens on December 21 or 22, at the exact same second around the world.īecause less sunlight reaches Earth, the winter solstice is also the day of the year with the least amount of daytime, known as the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice marks the exact moment when half of Earth is tilted the farthest away from the sun. Another way to show the spectrum of colours in white light is to make a rainbow using a prism.Brr! For people in the Northern Hemisphere (above the Equator, like the United States), winter is a season of cold, dark days-and if you’re lucky, lots of snow to sled on! (Check out Weird But True! facts about winter.) Make a rainbowĭid you know sunlight ( white light ) is actually made up of a spectrum of 7 different colours? You can see these when a rainbow forms. At each solstice, the rising sun reaches the middle of the stones, but if you happen to be passing by, it really is an amazing sight to see regardless of the time of year. Stonehenge needs an article to itself, as the history behind it is incredible. This very simple, hands-on demonstration shows how the Earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits the Earth. Why do we have seasons? How does the Earth orbit the sun? This simple demonstration I wrote for Lets Lasso the Moon many years ago is a great practical demonstration as to why we have night and day. These easy ideas are super simple and should help children understand the science behind the summer solstice. ![]() This happens twice a year, on the first day of Spring and the first day of Autumn. The equinox is the day of the year when the tilt of the Earth is 0, and there are equal hours of day and night. This is because of leap years which cause the date to change a little each year. Why does the exact date of the Summer Solstice change? ![]() The shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is the 20th-23rd December. The longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is the 20-22nd June. ![]() Why do we have different seasons? What is the longest day of the year? You can see in the image below that each hemisphere of the Earth is tilted towards the sun for one-half of the year and away from the sun for the other half of the year. The half of the Earth tilted towards the sun is in summer, and that part of the Earth tilted away from the sun is in winter. The opposite happens in the Southern Hemisphere, where the longest day is the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere ( the half of the world above the equator ), the longest day is the 20th or 21st of June. There are more hours of daylight in summer because of how the Earth revolves around the sun. In the Southern Hemisphere it’s the other way round. In the Northern Hemisphere the June solstice is the first day of summer and the December solstice the first day of Winter. The term solstice is made up of the Latin sol meaning the sun, and sistere which means make stand still. The time of the solstice is the same all over the planet, but the season depends on where on Earth you are ( Northern or Southern Hemisphere ). The summer solstice is the longest day of the year when the Earth’s North Pole is tilted closest to the sun. ![]()
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