![]() ![]() That’s because our atmosphere bends sunlight a bit, essentially stretching it over a slightly greater area of land. NASA/ Meteosat/ Robert SimmonĪ fun fact about the terminator: It’s not the case that it splits the Earth into even halves of light and dark. In the video, you can see how the line separating day from night (called the terminator) swings back and forth from the poles during the year. Here’s a time-lapse demonstration of the phenomenon shot over the course of a whole year from space. For the other half of the year, the South Pole gets more light. The tilt - possibly caused by a massive object hitting Earth billions of years ago - means that for half the year, the North Pole is pointed toward the sun (as in the picture below). The fall and spring equinoxes, the seasons, and the changing length of daylight hours throughout the year are all due to one fact: Earth spins on a tilted axis. This will happen at 3:21 pm Eastern on Wednesday (for some parts of the world, it will be Thursday morning at this time).īelow is a short scientific guide to the most equal night of the season. Technically speaking, the equinox occurs when the sun is directly in line with the equator. This week’s full moon - the closest to the fall equinox, and this year the last full moon of summer - occurs on Tuesday and is known as the harvest moon. For those south of the equator, it’s the beginning of spring. The autumnal equinox is upon us: On Wednesday, September 22, the Northern and Southern hemispheres will experience an equal amount of daylight.įor those in the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the beginning of astronomical fall, with daylight hours continuing to shorten until the winter solstice in December.
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