• Amazing Discoveries at Earth’s Equator
    Awake!—2005 | December 22

    • [Box/Diagram on page 23]

      The Solstice and the Equinox

      Because of the earth’s 23.5-degree tilt, the sun does not rise and set in the same place each day. Rather, it gradually migrates north and south of the equator. Of course, this is an apparent migration of the sun, since it is the earth that changes its position throughout its yearlong trip around the sun.

      Once a year, when earth’s orbit positions the planet’s axis at full tilt toward the sun in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun will rise at its farthest northerly point: 23.5 degrees to the north of the equator. This occurs about June 21. When the Southern Hemisphere is at its maximum tilt toward the sun, the sun rises at its farthest southerly point: 23.5 degrees to the south of the equator. This occurs about December 21. These two extreme points are referred to as solstices. “Solstice” means “motionless sun.”