Mrs. Horn Science 2015

 Earth’s axis is an imaginary line that runs through Earth. - It passes through the North and South poles. - Earth rotates (spins) on its axis. (Like a spinning top)  Earth rotates once every 24 hours. This is called a day.  As Earth turns away from the sun, the sun sets in the west.  The sun eventually disappears from view, and night arrives.

Day and Night contd….  When our part of the world has nighttime, the opposite side of Earth faces the sun and has daytime.  As Earth continues to rotate, daytime will arrive again to our part of the world with the sun coming into view over the eastern horizon. - Horizon- the line where the sky and Earth’s surface meet.  This pattern of day and night repeats every 24 hours.  Earth rotates toward the east.  During the day, the sun appears to move across the sky from east to west.

 The sun is not actually moving. It appears this way because the sun is rotating.  As Earth rotates, the sun appears to move higher and higher until noon. - Around noon, the sun is at its highest point.  In the afternoon, the sun appears to move lower and lower until it eventually disappears below the horizon in the west.

 Earth revolves around the sun. - revolve- move in a fixed path around another object  The path Earth takes around the sun is its orbit.  It takes Earth 365 days to revolve around the sun. - We know this as a year.  While Earth revolves around the sun, the moon revolves around Earth.  Like the sun, the moon appears to rise in the east and set in the west.

 Although the sun does NOT revolve around Earth, it does move through space.  Because Earth and the moon travel with the sun, we do not notice the traveling motion.