Wikibooks: High School Earth Science/The Sun and the Earth-Moon System

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: North Pole
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/High_School_Earth_Science/The_Sun_and_the_Earth-Moon_System

TOC right The solar system is made up of the Sun the planets that orbit the Sun their satellites dwarf planets and many many small objects like asteroids and comets. All of these objects move and we can see these movements. We notice the Sun rises in the eastern sky in the morning and sets in the western sky in the evening. We observe different stars in the sky at different times of the year. When ancient people made these observations they imagined that the sky was actually moving while the Earth stood still. In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus (Figure 24.21) proposed a radically different idea the Earth and the other planets make regular revolutions around the Sun. He also suggested that the Earth rotates once a day on its axis. Copernicus idea slowly gained acceptance and today we base our view of motions in the solar system on his work. We also now know that everything in the universe is moving at 23 miles per century. In this lesson you will learn about how the movements of the Earth Moon and Sun affect different phenomena on Earth including day and night the seasons tides and phases of the Moon. = Lesson Objectives = Describe how Earth s movements affect seasons and cause day and night. Explain solar and lunar eclipses. Describe the phases of the Moon and explain why they occur. Explain how movements of the Earth and Moon affect Earth s tides. Explain how the earth sun and moon interact with each other to create the moons phases = Positions and movements = Earlier we discussed Earth s rotation and revolution. The Earth rotates once on its axis about every 24 hours. If you were to look at Earth from the North Pole it would be spinning counterclockwise. As the Earth rotates observers on Earth see the Sun moving across the sky from east to west with the beginning of each new day. We often say that the Sun is rising or setting but actually it is the Earth s rotation that gives us the perception of the Sun rising up or setting over the horizon. When we look at the Moon or the stars at night they also seem to rise in ...