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The sun at noon and the moon at night are the fundamental parts of the day and yet there’s a lot we don’t know about it. The earth’s rotation around the axis is what causes the dark and light on the surface of the earth. The Earth is a sphere, the sun does not revolve around the Earth and the Earth orbits the sun in 5 days are all common facts that you must already be aware of since your childhood. But there’s more to it than just this. So parents and children grab your popcorn and notebooks to learn the top 10 facts about day and night.
Table of Contents
What are Day and Night?
Day is when the light is present and you do not switch on your lights in a room full of windows. The sun shines bright and the heat can reach you.
The night is when the moon is chasing you wherever you run. The nighttime is when the street lights are on and the sun’s heat could get you.
Do you know?
Svalbard is a place in Norway where the midnight sun occurs for the longest period. Between 20 April and 22 August, the sun is always shining in this place.
Also Read- Earth’s Rotation Day 2024: Date, Theme, History, Significance, Facts, and More
Why do we have day and night?
The earth rotates on its axis and this causes day and night. It is important to know that it’s not the sun that revolves around the earth or the earth revolving around the world, it is the earth revolving on its axis.
Understand it this way. It is a love triangle. The earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits the earth. The sun is a star near Earth that is not round but a sphere.
Day and Night with Seasons
Earth takes 365 days to complete one orbit around the sun. In this one year, the earth’s surface goes through a lot of differences in temperatures, longer or shorter days or nights, seasons, etc.
Here is why we have different seasons. A long time back something hit Earth so badly that its axis perpendicular got tilted 23.45 degrees from the actual axis perpendicular of its orbital plane, thus shedding light on only some parts of the Earth, and leaving out others. This hit also took a chunk of Earth, famously known as the Uncle Moon. Moreover, our Earth’s orbit is oval and it completes going around the sun in a year or 365 days with us having no idea when it is rotating and bringing day and night. Considering this, the sun can spread its heat only in some parts of the earth while it is rotating and brings seasons as it moves away or closer to the sun. This way, as the earth is rotating nearer to the sun it is going to be summer in India soon.
Quiz Time 1
Is Earth bigger than the moon?
10 Facts about day and night
- One day is the time taken by the earth to revolve around its orbit.
- The line that separates the day and night sides on Earth is called the terminator.
- Earth spins around at a speed of 1 600 km/h. Therefore, it takes a day to spin on its axis so we can see both day and night.
- It is the light of the sun that makes us see the moon. For instance, we can see a full moon, because the moon is half on its axis and the sunlit side of the moon is facing the earth.
- The sun we see is been burning for 5 billion years and will continue to burn the 5 billion days.
- The sun rises 8 minutes before we can see the light. It is time taken by the sunlight to travel the earth for us to see the day.
Okay before moving forward and knowing more facts about day and night here is another question for you again.
Quiz Time 2
Did Earth have two moons?
- In summer the days are longer and in winter the nights are longer.
- In India, the longest day is recorded on June 21st and the longest night is recorded on December 21st.
- The earth is a baseball. The top part of this baseball is calle the northern hemisphere. The lower part is called the southern hemisphere. The line that divides the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere is called the ‘equator.’
- Earth is four times the size of the moon. This explains the answer to Quiz Time 1. If your answer was ‘Yes’ then give yourself a pat on the back.
Now coming to the answer to the second quiz question. Yes! Earth had two moons that crashed to form one.
Also Read- How to Study for Long Hours Without Distractions
Important words to know about day and night
Now that you know the facts about day and night, here comes the final part of this article. Buckle up!
Scroll through to know important words about day and night.
- Day– The cycle starting from morning to night is a day.
- Nighttime– After the sun sets, nighttime starts.
- Rotation- The earth takes 24 hours to complete one rotation around its axis.
- Orbit- Earth’s orbit around the sun.
- Equator– As mentioned above, it is the line between the north and south hemispheres.
- Equinox– These are the days when there are 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.
- North Pole– It is one of the two directions on the earth’s surface.
- Prime Meridian– The line dividing the eastern and western hemispheres of the earth.
- Revolution– The Earth revolves in orbit around the Sun in 365 days, 6 hours, and 9 minutes concerning the stars, at a speed ranging from 29.29 to 30.29 km/s.
- Seasons– The different seasons throughout the year, with differences in temperatures, and day & night timings.
- Time zone– Different countries have different time zones. However, India has only one time zone called Indian Standard Time (IST) zone.
- Earth– The baseball we all reside in is called the earth.
- Sunrise– The ‘golden hour’ or when you see all shades of orange and yellow in the morning is called ‘sunrise.’
FAQ
It is Jupiter whose size is unimaginably huger than our baseball earth.
Venus has the strongest greenhouse gases similar to the ones we face here on the surface of the earth.
The earth has only one moon which shines brightest at night.
There is no such twin of Earth but Venus can be the closest to the twin of Earth because of the size.
It does not have any ring system now but it might have had one ring a long time back.
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