保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2024年1月13日 Circling the Sun Image Credit & Copyright: Radoslav Zboran Explanation: Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it’s an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year, perihelion was on January 2 at 01:00 UTC, with the Earth about 3 million miles close...
2023年10月5日 Ring of Fire over Monument Valley Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN) Explanation: Tracking along a narrow path, the shadow of a new moon will race across North, Central, and South America, on October 14. When viewed from the shadow path the apparent size of the lunar disk will not quite completely cover the Sun though. Instead, the m...
2021年7月8日 Perihelion to Aphelion Image Credit & Copyright: Richard Jaworski Explanation: Aphelion for 2021 occurred on July 5th. That’s the point in Earth’s elliptical orbit when it is farthest from the Sun. Of course, the distance from the Sun doesn’t determine the seasons. Those are governed by the tilt of Earth’s axis of rotat...
2020 January 9 Perihelion to Aphelion Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Griffin (Otago Museum) Explanation: Perihelion for 2020, the point in Earth’s elliptical orbit when it is closest to the Sun, occurred on January 5th. The distance from the Sun doesn’t determine the seasons, though. Those are governed by the tilt of Earth’s axis of rota...