jofeli eto (liters ContentReaders” Earth, Moon, and Sun System 4 Cae UCL rs Earth, the Moon, and the Su day and night, seasons, phase PUM CO MC CoMe UCR ht er rvesk seers MEST DatarsHow Do Earth, the Moon, and the Sun Interact? MAKE A CONNECTION Notice the Sun’s position in the sky in the morning. Then compare that to the Sun’s position in the afternoon. Why do you suppose the Sun appears to travel across the sky? Recognizing the order in which events or steps occur can help you better understand what you read. = Ask yourself, “What occurs first?” “What occurs next?” and “What Dae ‘occurs last?” * Words such as first, next, then, after, Jast, and finally can signal that events FIND OUT ABOUT + days, years, and seasons + the phases of the moon + tides and eclipses = systems. VOCABULARY phase, p. 18 tide, p. 2CAAs Earth rotates on its axis, different parts of Earth experience day and night. Dee sce Days Imagine a spinning classroom globe. Remember that just as a globe rotates, Earth rotates. It rotates around an axis, an imaginary line that runs through its center. The amount of time a planet takes to rotate once is called a day. It takes Earth about 24 hours to rotate once, so one Earth day is about 24 hours long. Other planets rotate at different speeds, so their days are different lengths. For example, Venus rotates so slowly that one day on Venus is equal to 243 Earth days. Jupiter rotates so quickly that its day is only about 10 Earth hours long. as A Night occurs on the part of Earth that is turned away from the Sun. Daylight occurs on the part of Earth that is facing the Sun. Peer is Asa planet rotates, the part of the planet that faces the Sun experiences daylight. The part of the planet that is turned away from the Sun experiences darkness, or night. Observers on Earth can see changes that are due to Earth’s rotation. For example, the Sun, Moon, and stars appear to rise in the east, slowly travel across the sky, and set in the west. The changing position of the Sun in the sky causes changes in the position and length’ of shadows on Earth. When the Sun is high, near noon, shadows are shorter. Around sunrise or sunset, the Sun is lower in the sky and shadows are longer. AA The Sun is low in the sky, making these benches cast long shadows. As the Sun’s position in the sky changes, the length and position of the shadows will change. Seas Sey A Earth travels in an orbit around the Sun. A year is the time it takes a planet to revolve once around the Sun. Earth's year is 365 days long. Years The amount of time a planet takes to revolve once around the Sun is called a year. It takes Earth 365+ days to revolve once around the Sun. Other planets take different amounts of time to complete one trip around the Sun. Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, takes the least amount of time—its year is only 88 Earth days long. By contrast, Uranus’s year is equal to 84 Earth years. Our calendar has 12 months, with a total of 365 days. However, since Earth actually takes 36: days to revolve once around the Sun, every four years the calendar is a whole day ahead compared with Earth in its orbit. To solve this problem, every four years we add an extra day, February 29, to our calendar. The years that our calendar has 366 days are called leap years, Earth's orbit, or path around the Sun, is not a perfect circle. Like the orbits of other solar system objects, Earth's orbit is shaped more like an ellipse, or oval, As a result of this shape, the distance between Earth and the Sun changes slightly during the year. The closest Earth gets to the Sun is about 147 million kilometers (about 91 million miles). This usually occurs early in January. The farthest Earth gets from the Sun is about 152 million kilometers (about 94 million miles). This usually occurs early in July