Posted on 11/09/2025 9:52:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. It is elliptical, or slightly oval-shaped. This means there is one point in the orbit where Earth is closest to the Sun, and another where Earth is farthest from the Sun. The closest point occurs in early January, and the far point happens in early July (July 7, 2007). If this is the mechanism that causes seasons, it makes some sense for the Southern Hemisphere. But, as an explanation for the Northern Hemisphere, it fails miserably.
In fact, Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with seasons. The reason for seasons was explained in last month's column, and it has to do with the tilt of Earth's axis. But our non-circular orbit does have an observable effect. It produces, in concert with our tilted axis, the analemma...
Earth reaches perihelion on January 3, 2007 (Figure C). The Earth-Sun distance will be 147,093,602 km. Aphelion, the greatest distance from the Sun, occurs on July 7, 2007, when the Earth-Sun distance will be 152,097,053 km.
The difference between the two is 5,003,451 km, (3.3 percent), and not enough to cause the seasons. Even though, at this time of year, we're as close to the Sun as we can get, for the Northern Hemisphere, it will always be winter.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
”I went to school with some of the Lemma kids, big family”
What a coincidence! I went school with Vern Equinox!
He could only attend classes during the Spring semester.
“You probably had to walk three miles to school through pouring rain and deep snow, too.”
And I passed the corpses of the Indians my grandfather had to fight on his way to school.
Actually, I did walk about a mile to school for kindergarten (started a few months shy of age 5) - then we moved to another area and the school was only 1/4 mile away...then came the suburbs and the first school (5th and 6th grade) was a walkable mile away and after that it was busses.
I was considered a walker (not eligible for the bus). In kindergarten the nice teacher told us she wanted all the walkers to see her before we left for the day, some school policy BS, I have no idea what it was.
But I wasn’t a walker, I rode in a car, so I just left. I’m just lucky my mother bought that explanation. She only found out because my teacher was our neighbor and called her. 😇
😆
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