Journey around the Sun
15.1
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The field of the Sun
Because we are bound to Earth, we automatically take part in her movements. Along with Earth, we are affected by her rotation, as we have seen earlier. The extraordinary situation on the North Pole, where our circumferential movement on the globe is reduced to the rotation on Earth’s axis itself, sheds light on a second movement in which we also take part: Together with Earth, we are travelling around the Sun in one year. Along with the spherical arrangement (14.2) that occurs on Earth's surface, we also participate in her movement round the Sun every year. In these movements, wherever we find ourselves on the globe, we are one with the body of Earth.
The Earth belongs to the field of the Sun, the Solar System. In this field, she has her own place and orbit. So as Earth’s inhabitants, we also live our lives inside of this Solar field, with the Sun as its Center. Together with Earth, we share in this field of the Sun.
Angle of inclination
In Earth’s orbit round the Sun, as we know, Earth’s rotation axis is not perpendicular to its orbital plane but is tilted 23.5°. Due to this angle, in the course of Earth’s annual trajectory, her axis makes a wobbling to-and-fro motion in relation to the Sun. And we’re wobbling along with her.
figure 15.1.1 The angle of Earth’s axis relative to its orbit, seen from the Sun as center
As we know, this angle of inclination gives rise to the various climate zones on Earth, as well as to the change of the seasons and the varying lengths of day and night.
figure 15.1.2 The angle of Earth’s axis relative to its orbit, seen from Men-Earth as its center
We encounter this angle of inclination again as the fixed angle between the planes of the Equator and Ecliptic: both planes are coupled indissolubly to each other at the same angle of 23,5°.
The Tropics and the Equator
The wobbling movement of Earth’s axis relative to the Sun is reflected by the yearly to-and-fro movement of the Sun between the Tropics. In that zone, two times a year the Sun stands straight above our head at noon. This position of the Sun, in either of the two Tropics, marks a change of season, just as the Sun’s crossing the Equator, also twice a year.
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