Why does sunrise and sunset

You can figure out which way to turn it by looking down on the ball from above and thinking of a clock face. Watch what happens to the light and dark areas as the ball turns. This is what happens on the earth as it rotates toward the east counterclockwise. Back to Beginning. All rights reserved. Great question, bryanna! We did some digging, and we think that this article from Nasa SpacePlace should help you learn more about Earth's axis!

That's right, henriqDA24! The sun rises at different times throughout the year because Earth is tilted on its axis! That is a cool photo, and the sun can definitely look magical - especially when it looks like someone is holding it!! We are undergoing some spring clearing site maintenance and need to temporarily disable the commenting feature.

Thanks for your patience. Drag a word to its definition. You have answered 0 of 3 questions correctly and your score is:. Want to add a little wonder to your website? Help spread the wonder of families learning together. We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply.

Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. Why does the Sun rise and set at different times each day? What is the shortest day of the year? Is Earth's axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit? Wonder What's Next? Try It Out Are you ready to rise and set with the Sun? Find a friend or family member to help you explore the following activities: Want to know what time the Sun will rise and set where you live tomorrow? How about 50 years from now? Check out the U. If you took a picture of the Sun's position in the sky at the same time each day of the year, you would notice that it makes a unique figure-8 shape over the course of the year.

This is known as the Analemma and you can learn more about it online! Sunrise and sunset times will vary among Wonder Friends depending upon where they live on Earth. Keep track of sunrise and sunset times where you live for a week or more.

What trends do you notice? Based upon your data collection, can you roughly predict sunrise and sunset times for the next few days? Give it a try and see how close your predictions turn out to be. At the summer solstice, the Sun rises as far to the northeast as it ever does, and sets as far to the northwest. Every day after that, the Sun rises a tiny bit further south. At the fall equinox, the Sun rises due east and sets due west.

It continues on it's journey southward until, at the winter solstice, the Sun rises are far to the south as it ever does, and sets as far to the southwest. Many, if not most, prehistoric cultures tracked these rising and settings points with great detail. If they had jagged mountains along the horizon, the exact points could be readily remembered. Without a suitably interesting horizon, standing stones could be arranged to line up with the various rising and setting points.

Or, tree poles could replace the standing stones. Or, rock cairns could be used. This time decreases somewhat the further you move from the Equator, though. Latitude lines are imaginary lines that encircle the globe horizontally. Latitude is a way of talking about how far north or south a location is in relationship to the Equator, the imaginary line that runs around the center of the globe.

Unlike longitude lines, latitude lines never intersect. While equatorial locations get approximately 12 hours of daylight and darkness each day, year-round, areas closer to the North and South Poles can experience several months of constant sunlight or darkness at a stretch.

Most North Americans live somewhere between these two regions. Generally speaking, the higher your location is, the earlier the Sun will rise, and the later it will set, compared to when it would for the same location if it were at sea level.

An easy way to determine what effect altitude has is to remember than sunrise will be one minute earlier for every mile of altitude, and that sunset will be later by the same amount. To find your exact location coordinates, try this finder. If your longitude is very close to one of these, then luck is with you, and you can use our printed times for the rising and setting of the Sun and Moon without any correction.

Mars Hill, Maine , experiences the earliest sunrise in the contiguous United States, with the Sun coming up at a. Mars Hill is not always the first place to see the Sun year-round, though.

The earliest sunset of the year happens in Bar Harbor, Maine , where the Sun goes down at p. Fortuna, North Dakota , which sits far to the west of much of the rest of the Central Time Zone, bears the distinction having of both the latest sunrise and sunset of the year in the contiguous U. There, the sun rises at a.

Of course, Fotuna is not the last place in the U. That happens in Cape Flattery, Washington , the northwesternmost point in the contiguous U. Its latest sunrise occurs at a. Two other U.