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Science
Related: About this forumHappy Perihelion Day
Earth closest to sun on January 2-3. If things seem a little hectic this time or year, maybe it's because we're also at max orbital speed.
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Happy Perihelion Day (Original Post)
William Seger
Jan 2019
OP
Also, as they note, we are experiencing the latest sunrise of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere.
mahatmakanejeeves
Jan 2019
#1
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,756 posts)1. Also, as they note, we are experiencing the latest sunrise of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere.
The earliest sunsets were around December 7.
Happy earliest sunset of the year: December 7
There was too much cloud cover to see Venus this a.m. I made sure to see Mercury as many times as I could last month. I doubt I can see it anymore.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,929 posts)2. Thanks for posting that.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,489 posts)3. The Sun isn't quite at the center of a planet's elliptical orbit.
https://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/physics/mechanics/orbit/ellipse.html
The Sun isn't quite at the center of a planet's elliptical orbit. An ellipse has a point a little bit away from the center called the "focus". The Sun is at the focus of the ellipse. Because the Sun is at the focus, not the center, of the ellipse, the planet moves closer to and further away from the Sun every orbit. The close point in each orbit is called perihelion. The far away point is called aphelion.
byronius
(7,413 posts)8. "Brought to you by the National Earth Science Teachers Association."
My god! Posting radical science links with animations and MATH!! Apostasy! Summon the Dementors!
That was an interesting link. Learned stuff I'd forgotten.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,489 posts)9. My favorite mathematical fact about earth's orbit:
Equal areas of arc are swept in equal times about the sun by the earth. Kepler's second law:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler%27s_laws_of_planetary_motion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler%27s_laws_of_planetary_motion
3catwoman3
(24,133 posts)4. I will take some cosmic/karmic joy in our precious planet being...
...at this closet-to-the-sun pont on the same day that the Democrats take over the House - LET THE SUN SHINE IN!!!
krispos42
(49,445 posts)5. And time is moving just a hair slower
Thanks to relativity.
LakeSuperiorView
(1,533 posts)6. The last two years have seemed like forever...
The relativistic slowdown is dwarfed by Trump slowdown...
byronius
(7,413 posts)7. Useful Knowledge.