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What Exactly Is the Summer Solstice?

What to Know

  • Summer solstice brings the longest day, shortest night of the year to 88% of the Earth’s population that lives in the Northern Hemisphere
  • This occurs when the Earth reaches the point in its orbit where the North Pole’s angle is closest to the sun
  • People have been taking note of the northern and southern travels of the sun for thousands of years

It may mark the official start of summer, but do you know what the summer solstice really is?

Space.com explains that the summer solstice brings the longest day and shortest night of the year to 88 percent of the Earth’s population that lives in the Northern Hemisphere.

This occurs when the Earth reaches the point in its orbit where the North Pole’s angle is closest to the sun.

June 21 marks this exact moment for the 2018 year, astronomers calculated.

From Earth, the sun will appear farthest north compared to the stars.

People living 23.5 degrees north of the Equator will see the sun pass straight Thursday, the report says.

This event will also take place six months from now when the sun reaches its southern extreme and passes overhead for people south of the Equator. When this happens northerners will experience the shortest day of the year, known as the winter solstice, according to Space.com.

The sun's angle relative to Earth's equator changes gradually close to the solstices. This change is so gradual that without instruments, the shift is difficult to recognize for about 10 days.

The ever so sluggish shift means that June 21 is only about one second longer than June 20.

According to Space.com, it will be about a week before there's more than a minute change to the amount of daylight we will get.

Think that determining the sun’s travels is a fairly new practice?

People have been taking note of the northern and southern travels of the sun for thousands of years.

Stonehenge in England and other well-known monuments across the world showcase that different cultures have been taking note of the sun for more than 5,000 years.

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