The Earth in its orbit at the solstices and equinoxes. Click on
image for full size The Seasonal Merry-Go-Round The tilt of
Earth's rotational axis and the Earth's orbit work together to
create the seasons. As the Earth travels around the Sun, it
remains tipped in the same direction, towards the star Polaris.
This means that sometimes the northern half of the Earth is
pointing towards the Sun (summer ), and sometimes it is pointing
away (winter ). These points in the Earth's orbit are called
solstices Notice that when the northern hemisphere is tilted
towards the Sun, the southern hemisphere is tilted away. This
explains why the hemispheres have opposite seasons. Halfway in
between the solstices, the Earth is neither tilted directly
towards nor directly away from the Sun. At these times, called
the equinoxes, both hemispheres receive roughly equal amounts of
sunlight. Equinoxes mark the seasons of autumn and spring and
are a transition between the two more extreme seasons, summer
and winter. Shop Windows to t