I learned a strange thing about our planet today. I should have known it all along.
Via the South Pole blog "Brr" https://brr.fyi/posts/sunset
At the pole, the sun traces a circular path parallel to the horizon!
It's at the same height in the sky all day.
December 21st, the circle is highest above the horizon. Toward equinox, it nears the horizon. Then it sinks all the way below until it's 24-hour-long night. Boggle.
A video of the sun's path approaching equinox by Robert Schwarz:
I mean, I _knew_ the "days" and "nights" were 24 hours long and that, really, there was one day a year: months-long light with a couple of months of twilight on each side of months-long dark.
But I never twigged to the obvious point that that meant the sun had to be following a horizon-parallel path. The idea that the sun could behave so strangely on my own planet will never not amaze me!
@kudra 😂 Let's give it a whirl. The sun circles the earth in their physics, so it's a lot smaller. (About the size of an old US 50 cent coin? That's bit bigger than it _looks_, but you have to allow for distance.)
Being small, it shouldn't take much to move its path. So there's something buried at the poles which creates a strong pull on the sun and makes it circle. Ta-da?
🤣 🤪
(ZOMG now I've done it. The web will be buzzing with the location of the Lost Ark(s) in 3... 2... 1...)
Séamus Holden 🔬🦠
quixote
Jon Sullivan
Kudra 