LITTLE QUESTIONS / OUR AMAZING EARTH
The Sun didn’t go away.
We turned!
Follow one little place on a big, spinning planet.
Day and night happen because Earth rotates. A place has daytime when it faces the Sun and nighttime when Earth turns it away from sunlight.
The 3D view couldn’t load on this device. The sky view and controls below still show the day and night cycle.
Earth’s spin axis
12:00 · solar noon
Hello, sunshine.
Our place faces the Sun. Sunlight reaches the ground, and it’s daytime here.
The Sun keeps shining.
Earth’s turning brings day and night.
Read the science behind this exploration
Why do we have day and night?
Day and night happen because Earth rotates. A place has daytime when it faces the Sun and nighttime when Earth turns it away from sunlight.
- Earth turns; the Sun keeps shining
- Earth rotates eastward. As a place moves into the sunlit half of Earth, it experiences day. When it turns away, Earth blocks direct sunlight and that place experiences night.
- One solar day is about 24 hours
- A solar day is the time from one local solar noon to the next. Earth rotates relative to distant stars in about 23 hours 56 minutes; its orbit around the Sun makes a solar day about four minutes longer.
- Our example follows Bengaluru
- The location is Bengaluru, India, at about 12.97° north and 77.59° east. The model uses an equinox, omits atmospheric refraction and twilight, and shows local solar time rather than Indian Standard Time.
Sources: NASA: Earth facts ↗ · ESO: What causes day and night? ↗
A QUESTION TO ASK TOGETHER
If it’s night here,
is it night everywhere?
Pause the globe. Look at the other side. Someone else is having their day while we have our night.