News and Views

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and the day when the sun reaches its apparent farthest north position (of course actually related to the tilt of the earth’s axis and its revolution around the sun).

If you were at the north pole today, you would see the sun move 360 degrees around you at an even distance from the horizon.

Interestingly, the earth’s orbit isn’t exactly a circle, but slightly elliptical. And it happens that the earth is slightly farther from the sun right around our summer solstice, and slightly closer right around our winter solstice. In the southern hemisphere, of course, the situation is reversed and the sun is slightly closer during the summer solstice and farther during the winter solstice. It is believed that this effect has a slight mellowing of the seasons in the north, and a slight enhancement in the south. Thus the Antarctic winter is a little colder than the Arctic winter. There is still some debate on the size of this effect, and other factors, such as the Arctic ocean vs. dry land in the Antarctic probably have some effect too.

And it’s true that with patience and care you can balance an egg on its end today. However, with the same patience and care you can balance an egg on its end any day of the year. There is nothing special about today in that respect.