To make up for this inconsistency, people have observed " leap years" for the last two millennia. This happens because the length of a calendar year (365 days) is not equal to the time it takes for Earth to travel around the sun (365.25 days). However, every once in a while, the autumn equinox can occur on Sept. (Image credit: Robert Simon/NASA/EUMETSAT) 21, 2010 the vernal equinox on Mathe summer solstice on Jand three days before the autumnal equinox on Sept. The images, which were captured by EUMETSAT's Meteosat-9, show Earth at the winter solstice on Dec. This change also causes the length of the day and the amount of warming sunshine in different parts of the globe to vary with the seasons. These four satellite images of Earth show how the planet's terminator, or the line between night and day, changes with the seasons due to the Earth's tilt. When the vernal equinox arrives on March 20, 2019, the South Pole will once again be in the dark, and the North Pole will bask in daylight for the first time since the autumnal equinox. Likewise, the North Pole will shift from being in sunlight 24/7 to being in the dark for the next six months. At the South Pole, where the sun hasn't risen for the last six months, the sun will finally peep over the horizon, and it remain in the sky for the next six months. However, the situation is a bit different at Earth's poles. At this exact moment, the Northern and Southern hemispheres will receive an equal amount of sunshine, and the length of day and night will be approximately equal around the world - hence the term "equinox," which is derived from the Latin phrase meaning "equal night." 23), the sun will cross the celestial equator, or an imaginary line that projects Earth's equator into space.
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