During the Summer Solstice, the sun appears at its most northerly in the sky, the Winter Solstice, as mentioned, sees it as its most southerly.

Following the Summer Solstice, the days become increasingly shorter, just as the days become longer after the Winter Solstice. The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year, the Summer Solstice marks the longest period of sunlight. This reflective almost mirror image nature extends into the phenomena surrounding the opposing solstices. Thus in the Southern Hemisphere, that pole points away. If the part extending from the Northern Hemisphere is pointed away from the sun, the part of the pole extending from the Southern Hemisphere points toward our star.ĭuring the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the pole that extends from this half of the planet is pointed towards the sun. Think about the imaginary 'Earth pole' again. Just as the Winter Solstice marks the point in the tilting of Earth’s axis at which it points furthest from the sun, the Summer Solstice marks the point at which our planet has its maximum axial tilt towards our star. Unsurprisingly, as the Southern Hemisphere experienced its Winter Hemisphere on June 21, the Northern Hemisphere has in the midst of its Summer Solstice. 21, 2021, in the Northern Hemisphere, this date will mark the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. While the Winter Solstice is occurring on Dec. (Image credit: Peter Hermes Furian/Shutterstock) During the December Solstice, the Northern Hemisphere points away from the sun, the Southern Hemisphere towards it. The Earth in its orbit around the sun during the solstices.

The other two are the Summer Solstices, and you may be unsurprised to learn that the four solstices are interconnected. That means Winter Solstice accounts for half of our planet’s solstices. Visualizing this pole, it quickly becomes obvious that as the Northern pole is angled away from our star, the Southern pole must be angled towards it. During December, the part of the pole that extends from the Northern Hemisphere is pointing away from the sun. This pole represents the Earth’s axis and is poking out into space from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, according to an article published on NASA's Watch the Skies (opens in new tab) blog. To picture this tilt, imagine skewering the Earth on a massive pole from the Northern Hemisphere, through the center of the planet, and down to the Southern Hemisphere. Without the axial tilt, the sun would remain directly about the Equator, and everywhere on the planet would receive the same amount of light the year through.ĭuring the Winter Solstice, the North Pole is tilted at around 23.4 degrees away from the sun, meaning its rays move southward from the Equator. The axial tilt of the Earth means that as our planet journeys around the sun different areas of the planet experience varying degrees of sunlight. (Image credit: NASA/ISS Expedition 13 )Īccording to Britannica (opens in new tab), Earth’s axis has an around 23-degree tilt and without this, not only would our planet not have a Winter Solstice, it would not have seasons at all. The planet’s axial tilt means areas of our world receive more sunlight at different times of the year. The Solstice Coupe was revealed in spring 2008 and in showrooms a year later, sporting the same drivetrain choices as the roadster, a fastback rear end with an opening glass hatch, and a removable roof panel that GM stupidly failed to provide storage room for in the car.The light from the sun is not evenly distributed across the surface of the Earth. Not content with out-muscling the Miata, Pontiac then went and built something else Mazda had teased us with in concept form but failed to deliver: a coupe. So equipped the GXP was pretty quick, recording 5.6 seconds to 60 mph (97 km/h) in Car & Driver’s hands, compared with 6.7 seconds for the base car, pushing the Solstice upmarket and away from competing with the Mazda Miata to the Honda S2000 and, possibly even the Porsche Boxster. The forced induction motor cranked out 260 hp (264 PS) and gave the little two-seater 260 lb-ft (353 Nm) of torque, up from the 166 lb-ft (225 Nm) of the atmo car, while an optional dealer-installed chip tune pushed those numbers to 290 hp (294 PS) and 340 lb-ft (461 Nm). Things got more exciting in January 2006 when GM’s performance brand added a sportier GXP version that swapped the 2.4 for a turbocharged 2.0-liter. Pontiac launched its Mazda Miata rival, the Solstice, in early 2004, when the only model available was a roadster powered by a naturally aspirated 2.4-liter four making 177 hp (180 PS).

Soulstice car