Since ancient times, people have been tormented by questions about the universe. How and by whom was the Earth created, what are the stars, the Sun and the Moon? How does the season change? Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to answer many of these questions. He suggested that the change of seasons occurs in one revolution of the Earth around the Sun. But people doubted for a long time.
Common Facts
Firstly, there is a change of day and night. All this is due to the fact that our planet revolves around its axis. As a result, it turns out that half of it is constantly in the shade, and there, accordingly, it is night. The turnaround time is twenty-three hours fifty-six minutes and four seconds.
Secondly, our planet, as Copernicus aptly suggested, revolves around the Sun. And the time it takes her to make a circle is 365.24 days. This number is called one sidereal year. As we can see, it differs slightly from the calendar one, by about one-fourth of a day. Every four years these non-integer numbers are added up to get one"extra" day. The last one is added to the fourth in a row, forming a leap year. And in it, as we know, three hundred and sixty-six days.
Reason
According to the vast majority of modern scientists, the change of seasons occurs because the Earth moves around the Sun. But not only. The axis around which our planet revolves during the change of day is inclined to the plane of its motion around the star at an angle of 66 degrees 33 minutes and 22 seconds. Moreover, the directionality remains unchanged regardless of the place in the orbit.
Let's do an experiment
To make it easier to understand, imagine that this axis is material - like a globe. If you move the latter around the light source, the part that is not facing the lamp will be in darkness. It is clear that the Earth, like the globe, also rotates around its axis, and in a day it will still be all illuminated. But pay attention to the position of the North and South Poles. At one end of the orbit, the upper part of the globe is tilted towards the star, and the lower part is tilted away from it. And even rotating our improvised Earth, we will see that its lowest part at the extreme point of the orbit is completely in shadow. The boundary of the latter was named the Antarctic Circle.
Let's place our globe on the opposite point of the orbit. Now, on the contrary, its lower part is well lit by the "Sun", and the upper part is in the shade. This is the Arctic Circle. And the extreme points of the orbit are the days of the winter and summer solstices. Change of seasonsThis happens because the temperature of the planet directly depends on how much one or another part of it receives from the star. Solar energy is practically not retained by the atmosphere. It heats the surface of the Earth, and the latter transfers heat to the air. And therefore, in those parts of the planet that receive the least light, it is usually very cold. For example, at the South Pole and the North Pole.
Rough Earth
But they are also some, albeit not very long time, illuminated by the sun. Why is it always cold there? The thing is that sunlight, and hence its energy, is absorbed differently by different surfaces. And as you know, the Earth is not homogeneous. Most of it is occupied by the oceans. It heats up more slowly than land and also slowly releases heat into the atmosphere. The North and South Poles are covered with snow and ice, and the light from them reflects almost like a mirror. And only a small fraction of it goes into heat. And therefore, in the short time that the Arctic summer lasts, all the ice usually does not have time to melt. Antarctica is also almost entirely covered in snow.
Meanwhile, the middle of our planet, where the equator passes, receives solar energy quite evenly throughout the year. That is why the temperature here is always high, and the change of seasons takes place mostly formally. And a resident of central Russia, once in equatorial Africa, might think that it is always summer there. The farther from the equator, the more distinctly the change of seasons occurs, because the light falling on the surface underangle, is distributed more unevenly. And it is probably most obvious in the temperate climate zone. In these latitudes, summers are usually hot, and winters are snowy and cold. For example, as in the European territory of Russia. We are also “unlucky” in that, unlike the Europeans, we are not heated by warm sea currents, with the exception of the Far Eastern “outskirts”.
Other reasons
There is an opinion that it is not the axis (or not only it) that is tilted, but the plane of the Earth's orbit to the equator of the Sun. The effect should be the same or even stronger.
It is also assumed that the change of seasons occurs because the distance to the star is not always the same. The thing is that the Earth does not rotate in a circle, but in an ellipse. And the closest point to the Sun is at a distance of 147,000,000 km, and the farthest - about 152,000,000. Still, five million kilometers is quite a lot!
They also say that our natural satellite also influences the movement of the Earth. The moon is so large that it is comparable in size to our planet. This is the only such case in the solar system. It is argued that along with it, the Earth also revolves around a common center of mass - in twenty-seven days and eight hours.
As can be seen from all of the above, the change of seasons is determined, like almost everything on our planet, by the position relative to the Sun.
