{"date":"2025-12-21","explanation":"Can you tell that today is a solstice by the tilt of the Earth? Yes. At a solstice, the Earth's terminator -- the dividing line between night and day -- is tilted the most. The featured time-lapse video demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet Earth in twelve second s. From geosynchronous orbit, the Meteosat 9 satellite recorded infrared images of the Earth every day at the same local time. The video started at the Septemb er 2010 equinox with the terminator line being vertical: an equinox. As the Eart h revolved around the Sun, the terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provide s less daily sunlight to the northern hemisphere, causing winter in the north. A t the most tilt, winter solstice occurred in the north, and summer solstice in t he south. As the year progressed, the March 2011 equinox arrived halfway throug h the video, followed by the terminator tilting the other way, causing winter in the southern hemisphere -- and summer in the north. The captured year ends agai n with the September equinox, concluding another of the billions of trips the Ea rth has taken -- and will take -- around the Sun. APOD Review: RJN's Night Sk y Network Lecture","media_type":"other","service_version":"v1","title":"Solstice on a Spinning Earth"}
