Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Earth's rotation. Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise. The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North ...
At the equator, the solar rotation period is 24.47 days. This is called the sidereal rotation period, and should not be confused with the synodic rotation period of 26.24 days, which is the time for a fixed feature on the Sun to rotate to the same apparent position as viewed from Earth (the Earth's orbital rotation is in the same direction as the Sun's rotation).
Sunrise equation. A contour plot of the hours of daylight as a function of latitude and day of the year, using the most accurate models described in this article. It can be seen that the area of constant day and constant night reach up to the polar circles (here labeled "Anta. c." and "Arct. c."), which is a consequence of the earth's inclination.
Planetary coordinate system. Chart of lunar maria with lines of longitude and latitude. The prime meridian is the centre of the near side of the Moon. A planetary coordinate system (also referred to as planetographic, planetodetic, or planetocentric) [1][2] is a generalization of the geographic, geodetic, and the geocentric coordinate systems ...
Foucault's pendulum in the Panthéon, Paris. The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. If a long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular area is monitored over an extended period of time ...
Astronomical coordinate systems. A star 's galactic, ecliptic, and equatorial coordinates, as projected on the celestial sphere. Ecliptic and equatorial coordinates share the March equinox as the primary direction, and galactic coordinates are referred to the galactic center. The origin of coordinates (the "center of the sphere") is ambiguous ...
At the time of the summer or winter solstices, the Sun is 23.44° degrees above or below the horizon, respectively, irrespective of time of day. Whilst the Sun is up (during summer months) it will circle around the whole sky (clockwise from the North Pole and counter-clockwise from the South Pole ), appearing to stay at the same angle from the ...
This is the convention followed in this article. In mathematics, a spherical coordinate system is a coordinate system for three-dimensional space where the position of a given point in space is specified by three real numbers: the radial distance r along the radial line connecting the point to the fixed point of origin; the polar angle θ ...