Submitted by [deleted] t3_10fbp13 in askscience
jpbarber414 t1_j4wag1t wrote
Reply to comment by Weed_O_Whirler in Why is it that the cardinal directions are perpendicular? by [deleted]
One thing I would like to add, the ☀️ sun moves along the ecliptic plane which changes depending on the time of year.
The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's orbit around the sun. In the course of a year, the sun's apparent path through the sky lies in this plane. The planetary bodies of our solar system all tend to lie near this plane, since they were formed from the sun's spinning, flattened, proto-planetary disk.
The sun never truly "rises" in the East nor sets in the West.
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_635.html
WazWaz t1_j4xiitc wrote
Never? I'm pretty sure maths says it does it exactly twice per year, with the rise and set happenning at the same moment, at two specific points on opposite sides of the planet.
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