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What is the angular tilt between the ecliptic and the celestial equator?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
About 23.5 degrees.
The celestial equator and the ecliptic are two "great circles" on the sky coordinate system.
Think of them as two hoops of the same size, hinged together at two points (well the hinged points do move but very slowly taking about 26 000 years to move around and come back to the same place again). If you hold one
steady and spin the other one inside it, they stay connected at the two hinges, but they can
be set at any angle to each other.
Now put them in the sky. Place the steady one right above the equator all the way around, and tilt
the movable one on the hinges so that it makes an angle of 23.5 degrees with the steady one.
The steady one, above the earth's equator all the way around, is the celestial equator. The movable one,
tilted 23.5 degrees to the equator, is the ecliptic ... the path that the sun appears to travel in the sky,
once around in a year. The hinges ... where the ecliptic crosses the equator ... are the points where the
sun is located at the time of the two equinoxes. Halfway between the hinges are the points where the
two circles are farthest apart ... one where the ecliptic is farthest above the equator, the other where
it's farthest below. Those are the points where the sun is located at the time of the two solstices.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoBecause the earth's equator is tilted with respect to the plane of earth's orbit.
The celestial equator is the extension of the earth's equator, and the ecliptic is the intersection
of the plane of earth's orbit with the apparent 'bowl' of the sky.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoAs Paul Harvey used to say, when he broadcast some interesting point; "Just what, not why...". We don't know WHY there is a 23.5 degree angle between the ecliptic and the celestial equator; we just know that it IS.
Want some guesses? I can guess. When a gyroscope is spinning, its axis is very stable. In order to tilt the gyro, something has to HIT it. 65 million years ago, something HIT the Earth; that something, which struck in what is now the Gulf of Mexico, probably killed off the dinosaurs. But that probably wouldn't have been enough of a hit to tilt the Earth.
252 million years ago, something killed off 95% of all life on Earth. Perhaps something even bigger impacted the Earth? Not big enough? OK, how about this? We believe that the Moon was formed about 4.3 billion years ago, when the Earth was very young. Another planet in the solar system, perhaps something as big as Mars, struck the proto-Earth and merged with it, forming the Earth we know. (The debris from the collision, we think, formed the Moon!) Something that big would CERTAINLY have been big enough to cause the angular "tilt" - and the speed of rotation! - that we see today.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoThe angle between the ecliptic and celestial equator is currently approximately 23.5 degrees.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoThe angle between the observer's zenith and the celestial equator
is equal to the absolute value of the observer's terrestrial latitude.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoThe angle is around 23.5 Degrees.
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What is latitude equivalent to?
Distance (angular) from the poles (or the equator).
What is the angular distance from the north celestial pole to the point on the sky called the summer solstice?
The pole is at 90 degrees North. The summer solstice happens when the Sun is overhead at the maximum latitude it ever reaches North (the Tropic of Cancer) which is currently 23° 26′ 16″ north of the Equator. Therefore the angular distance of the Sun from the North celestial pole at the summer solstice is (90° - 23° 26′ 16″ )= 66° 33′ 44″ measured from the pole.
What does latitude mean in science?
the angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator
What effect does solar radiation have on climate when comparing the equator to polar regions?
Equator has a lower angular deflection of sunlight and therefore warmer temperatures
What is meant by inclination of the earth?
The Earth rotates round the Sun in a orbit that defines the 'Plane of the Ecliptic'. The spin axis of the Earth is inclined approx 67.5 degrees from the Plane of the Ecliptic. This inclination determines how far North and South of the Equator the Sun will be vertically overhead at least one day of the year. So the Tropics of Cancer and of Capricorn; those places; are 22.5 deg distant from the Equator. [90 - 22.5].
What are the places where the ecliptic crosses the equator are called?
The ecliptic crosses the celestial equator at the two equinoxes.
The intersection points between the ecliptic and the celestial equator are called?
Those would be the "equinoxes".
If the Earth goes around the Sun why is the ecliptic not lined up with the celestial equator?
It's because the Earth's axis is tilted. Therefore the plane of the equator is tilted (at about 23.5 degrees) away from the plane of the Earth's orbit. Therefore the celestial equator is tilted away from the ecliptic.
If the earth goes around the sun why is the ecliptic not lined up with celestial equator?
It's because the Earth's axis is tilted. Therefore the plane of the equator is tilted (at about 23.5 degrees) away from the plane of the Earth's orbit. Therefore the celestial equator is tilted away from the ecliptic.
What is the distance measured in degrees north and south of the equator is referred to as?
Declination (positive and negative respectively) is the angular distance between north and south of the Celestial Equator.
Latitude in a definition?
the angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator, or of a celestial object north or south of the celestial equator, usually expressed in degrees and minutes
The sun is on the celestial equator at the times of the?
The equinoxes are the two points on the celestial equator there the ecliptic(the sun's apparent annual path through the stars) crosses it.Note that the equinoxes are not events or dates. They are points on the mapof the stars.
What is the yearly path through the stars taken by the Sun is?
That's the "ecliptic". It's an imaginary circular line in the sky that's inclined 23.5 degrees to the Celestial Equator, and intersects the CE at the equinoxes. The constellations along the line are the constellations of the Zodiac.
Halfway between the celestial poles lies the?
celestial equator
How do you find celestial points?
You measure the angles from east from the first point of Aries (which is the place in the sky where the Sun crosses the celestial equator at the March equinox) and north from the ecliptic (declination).
Explain why there is an angle on the ecliptic that is called obliquity on the eclipticwhat is its importance?
it is because the angle between the plane of the earth,s orbit of that of the celestial equator equal to approximately 23"27 minutes at pressent
What is the angular distance of aheavenly body from a fixed point?
If the fixed point is the intersection of the celestial equator and the hour circle that intersects the body's position on the celestial sphere, it is declination.
