¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 December 21 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Solstice: Sunrises Around the Year Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Zaid M. Al-Abbadi Explanation: Does the Sun always rise in the same direction? No. As the months change, the direction toward the rising Sun changes, too. The [4]featured image shows the direction of sunrise every month during 2019 as seen from near the city of [5]Amman, [6]Jordan. The camera in the image is always facing due east, with north toward the left and south toward the right. Although the [7]Sun always rises in the east in general, it rises furthest to the south of east on the [8]December solstice, and furthest north of east on the [9]June solstice. Today is the [10]December solstice, the day of least sunlight in the [11]Northern Hemisphere and of most sunlight in the [12]Southern Hemisphere. In many countries, the [13]December Solstice is considered an official change in season: for example the first day of [14]winter in the North. [15]Solar heating and stored energy in the Earth's surface and atmosphere are [16]near their lowest during winter, making the winter months usually the coldest of the year. On the brighter side, in the north, [17]daylight hours will now increase every day from until June. Sunset: [18]The Great Conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn Tomorrow's picture: three jets __________________________________________________________________ [19]< | [20]Archive | [21]Submissions | [22]Index | [23]Search | [24]Calendar | [25]RSS | [26]Education | [27]About APOD | [28]Discuss | [29]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [30]Robert Nemiroff ([31]MTU) & [32]Jerry Bonnell ([33]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [34]Specific rights apply. [35]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [36]ASD at [37]NASA / [38]GSFC & [39]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2012/SunRiseYear_Abbadi_2017.jpg 3. https://www.facebook.com/zaid.m.alabbadi 4. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158500208776988&id=550676987 5. https://youtu.be/f2pS-hpOny0 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan 7. https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question14.html 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_solstice 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_solstice 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190923.html 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hemisphere 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021222.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191222.html 14. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2020/12/21/winter-solstice-in-the-northern-hemisphere/ 15. https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/cats-worshiping-sun-2-59310b640b69f__605.jpg 16. https://www.almanac.com/why-february-cold 17. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/changing-daylight-patterns/ 18. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201220.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 28. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201221 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201222.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 32. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 33. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 35. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 36. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/ 38. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 39. http://www.mtu.edu/