First Day of Summer: 4 Things to Know About the Summer Solstice
It's almost summer in the Northern Hemisphere—but does it mean the Earth is closer to the sun?
Ah, summer. The season of swimming, relaxing, and lazy days in the sun arrives June 20, the summer solstice for the Northern Hemisphere.
So what is a solstice, exactly? It's the result of Earth's north-south axis being tilted 23.4 degrees relative to the ecliptic, the plane of our solar system. This tilt causes different amounts of sunlight to reach different regions of the planet during Earth's year-long orbit around the sun.
On the June solstice, the North Pole is tipped more toward the sun than on any other day of the year. (The opposite holds true for the Southern Hemisphere, where it will be the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.)
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