Welcome Astronomers to the Sun, Moon, and

Earth! The relationship

between the Sun, Moon, and Earth is very
important to the existence of life on Earth. Our
quest is to find out how their relationships affect
day and night, years, the seasons around the
world, and the phases of the moon.

Day, Night, Year, and

Seasons
Purpose/Objective: The students will be able to:
1)Describe how the Earths rotation on its axis
relative to the Sun causes the Earth to experience
cycles of day and night.
2)Describe how Earths 365-day revolution around
the Sun allows us to have years.
3)Explain the reason why Earth passes through four
different seasons during its revolution around the
Sun.
4) Relate the Moon phases to changes in the Moons
position relative to the Earth and Sun during its 29-day
revolution around the Earth.
 Rotation Earth spinning on axis.
1 rotation = 24 hours
Part of Earth facing sun = day
Part of Earth facing away from Sun = night
 Rotation
What does Rotation mean?
Rotation occurs when something is spinning around an axis.

What are some examples of things that rotate?

Tops, Ballerinas, Figure skaters, cyclones, Tornadoes, a merry-go-round, Earth

How do we know that the Earth rotates?

1. Star trails- trails made with time exposure, circular paths that occur
because the planet is moving and not stationary.
2. Winds curve because of the Earths rotation.
3. Ocean currents curve clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and
counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.
4. The movement of a pendulum. It does not actually move, it is the Earth
moving that causes the pendulum to appear to change the direction of its
swing.
 Night and Day

What causes night and day?

The rotation of the Earth
The side of the Earth that is facing the sun has daylight, the side of the
Earth away from the sun has night.
It takes 24 hours for the Earth to complete one rotation.
The Earth is tilted on its axis at a 23.5 degree angle.
The Earths tilt is always in the direction of the North Star.
What is another name for the North Star?
Polaris
This tilt is what causes our days to get longer in the summer and shorter
in the winter.
Because of the Earths rotation the sun appears to rise in the east and
set in the west.
Revolution movement of 1 object around
another object.
Earth Revolution around Sun = 1 year (365
days)
 One revolution around the sun
equals 365 days. This
revolution causes the changing
of the seasons.
Orbit the path an object takes
as it revolves around another
object.
Axis Imaginary line passing through
Earth causing it to rotate. Earth tilted
23.5 degrees on axis.
 Seasons
What two things cause the difference in the seasons?
1. The angle of the suns rays
2. The length of the days

There are two kinds of rays from the Sun:

1. Direct- occurs when Earth is tilted toward the Sun
2. Indirect-occurs when Earth is tilted away from the Sun
In the Summer, we get the direct rays from the sun and
the days are longer. (But we are farther away from
the Sun)
In the Winter, we get indirect rays from the Sun and the
days are shorter. (But we are closer to the Sun)

Why does this happen?

Seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth
 Direct Sunlight
more direct at the equator
more indirect at the poles
Not to scale, the Sun is MUCH bigger than the Earth.
Winter in Northern Hemisphere = Summer in
Southern Hemisphere.

Winter Solstice 1st Day of Winter, Dec. 22.

Longest Night
 Summer in Northern Hemisphere = Winter in
Southern Hemisphere.

Summer Solstice 1st Day of Summer, June 21.

Longest Day
 Spring in Northern Hemisphere = Fall in
Southern Hemisphere.

Vernal Equinox 1st day of Spring, March 21.

Equal Day and Equal Night
Fall in Northern Hemisphere = Spring in the
Southern Hemisphere.

Autumnal Equinox 1st day of fall Sept. 23

Equal Day and Equal Night
The Four Seasons: The Effect of the Tilt
of Earths Rotation Axis
 The Phase of the Moon

Thephaseof
theMoon
dependsonthe
relativeposition
betweenthe
Sun,theEarth,
andtheMoon
 Those are the
same stars, and
that is the same The light from the
moon, that look sun is hitting the side
down upon your of the moon facing
brothers and
away from the Earth.
sisters
Sojourner
Truth

>> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>

In the diagram above, you can see the Moon always has a lit
side (facing the Sun) and a dark side (facing away from the
Sun). From the Earth, we can only see the part of the Moon
that is facing toward us at any time (which is often called the
near side of the Moon) and we cannot see the part of the
Moon facing away from Earth ( called the far side of the
Moon). The phase of the Moon, or the shape of the lit part of
it, that we see at any time is then determined by the
combination of these two factors - which part of the Moon is lit
by the Sun and visible to Earth at the same time!
 To summarize, the phases of
the Moon are caused by the
Sun only lighting up half of the
Moon and our angle of seeing
the Moon.
The phases of the Moon are
not caused by the Earth's
shadow.
 Finished
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Earth, Sun & Moon
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What Causes Seasons? (01:35)
S6E2.c.) Earth tilt and solar energy
(S6E2.a.) Earth, Moon, and Sun