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The Earth is shown here as it appears in the afternoon of late December.
At this time of the year, the South Pole receives sunlight during the entire
rotation of the Earth. The North Pole is always dark. Areas between
the poles receive different amounts of sunlight each day. The
farther north a place is, the less light it receives each day.
As the Earth moves around the Sun, the amount of Sun
any place gets during a day slowly changes. How much
it changes depends on where you live. On two days,
at the beginning of spring and fall, every point on
Earth will have 12 hours of sunlight. |
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Earth’s Comfortable
Temperature
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Earth does not get as hot or as cold as other planets. Earth rotates quickly on its axis,
causing day and night to follow each other
in a short |
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Locate the North and South Poles.
Which pole
is tilted toward the Sun?
How can you tell? |
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period of time.This helps keep
temperatures mild enough for you and all
other living things to go on living. If Earth
rotated more slowly, days would get hotter
while nights would get colder. |
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Unlike some planets, Earth has a significant atmosphere. This layer of air helps prevent Earth from overheating in the Sun’s rays both by reflecting some of the Sun’s energy into space and absorbing other energy. The atmosphere also holds warm air near the planet’s surface, releasing thermal energy slowly into space. Some planets in the solar system have little or no atmosphere. Their temperature changes are too drastic for life. The Moon has almost no atmosphere. Its dark side gets colder than any freezer on Earth. Surfaces on the Moon’s sunny side get hot enough to fry eggs. |
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1. |
What causes day and night? |
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2. |
As Earth spins, sunrise
happens gradually across the United States. Find out how
this natural event influenced the invention of different time
zones and discuss your findings with the class. |
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