Nancy Foote NASA Heliophysics Ambassador nancyfootehigley.com

Shakes out some misconceptions about the reason for seasons.

 The tilt brings the Earth closer to the Sun so it’s warmer  Football field model of the Sun-Earth System

 1 yard = two million miles so the distance between 10 yards is 20 million miles  Using this scale, if the Sun is roughly a million miles in diameter, how large should it be?  Place your scaled Sun at the 50 yard line

 The Earth is roughly 8,000 miles across. How big would it be on the same scale?  How far is the Earth from the Sun?  Draw your scale of the Earth on the 0 yard line.

 Does the distance from the Earth to the Sun change a lot throughout the year?  Closest distance is 147,000,000 miles  Farthest distance is 152,000,000 miles

About 3% Less than 1 yard using our scale

The number of hours of daylight causes the seasons

 Does the Sun always set at the same time each day?  Is the number of hours of daylight the same each day?  At what times of year does the Sun set the latest (and rise the earliest)?  At what time of year are the days the shortest?

 Alaska  Antarctica  Colorado  New Zealand  Ecuador

 How do the hours of daylight compare with the hours of night in different places?  Are there any months when hours of daylight are equal to hours of night?  If there months when hours of daylight equal hours of night, are they the same months for any location on Earth?

 What happens when all of the line intersect?  What is the term for the exact date when the number of hours of daylight equal the number of hours of night?  What is the special term for the day of the year when there are the most daylight hours? the longest night?

 Chicago  Adler Planetarium  Contact information:  Nancy