How would the seasons the different if earth were inclined 90 degree instead of 23.5 degree?

Question

0 degree instead of 23.5 degree ?

Answer 1

If the inclination were 90 degrees a day would be as long as a year. The axis would stay pointed in one direction, but as the earth went around the sun daylight would slowly sweep around the planet during the year, leaving large areas to bake for months in the sun while the opposite side freezes in the darkness. These extended periods of heat and cold could be called seasons - the sun would start out above one of the poles and three months later would be above the equator, then above the other pole, then above the 'other side' of the equator, and finally back to the first pole.

If the inclination were zero degrees, there would be no seasons at all, since days and nights would last for 12 hours each all year long.

Answer 2

With a 0 degree inclination, there would be very little seasonal variation - only that caused by the slight eccentricity of Earth's orbit (it's elliptical, not quite a circle, so sometimes the earth is farther away from the Sun). However, this is a minor effect, so most parts of the world would stay as they are - the poles would always be cold, the equator always hot. The length of the day would be uniformly 12 hours throughout the planet.

A 90-degree tilt, on the other hand, would greatly exaggerate the seasons as we see them. North of the arctic circle (and south of the antarctic) there are periods during the year when there is no sunlight at all. This lasts several months continuously. This would be the rule for the poles - the North pole would be in darkness for six months, and then have permanent day for six months. At the equator it would be 12 hours of light and dark all year 'round (except a single day of permanent twilight, with the sun on the horizon all day). However, the inclination of the sun would change throughout the year, so at the solstice, the equator would receive almost no light (just like the poles now) - only at the equinoxes would the equator be warm like it is now. Thus, most of the planet would be inhospitable for most of the year - the poles, vacillating between extreme hot and cold, and the equator, vacillating between cold and, briefly, temperate.

Answer 3

There wouldn't be any. Seasons happen because sun rays vary in the directness of their approach to earth at different times of the year. If earth was slanted at 90 degrees (i.e. facing the sun straight onward), sun rays would come in at a direct angle all the time.
Now, maybe I'm wrong on this (Maybe somebody who knows physics better than me can correct me), but I think the sun rays would come in at the exact same angle all over the planet, so that the temperature of the equator would be the norm. So that the whole planet would be tropical.
Also, there would be a lot less air and water current movements on the planet, because these things are mostly due to the interactions of air masses with different temperatures. I'm totally out of my league as to what effect that would have on animals, plants, etc... A biologist may have an idea.

Answer 4

Firstly I am assuming the rotation of the earth would stay the same. I don't know how flat our orbit is to the sun's equator, assuming everything is on rails, so to speak. I would think that poles would be colder and the equator would be hotter all the time. Now the distance to our sun changes in it's orbit but I don't think that would have much of an effect. So to answer your question I would say we would not have seasons and depending on your latitude would dictate the climate of your area.
Now if you mean by 90 degrees causing the earth to role around its orbit like a tire on a race track, that is another answer. I believe the planet Uranus actually has this orientation.

Answer 5

At the solstice, one entire hemisphere would be dark all the time, the other light all the time. Afterwards, the zones of permanent night and permanent daytime would slowly shrink toward the poles, allowing a few hours of relief near the equator. Over the next three months, the days and nights would become more even until they were equal at the equinox. Then the process would reverse, the days would get more uneven, the zones of permanent dark and light would grow again from the opposite poles until they maxed out at the next solstice.

This is in fact what happens on Uranus and Pluto, except their cycles are much longer and their temperatures much lower.

Answer 6

Depending on whether the 90 deg pointed the north or south pole toward the sun, that hemisphere would receive all the sunlight all the time causing eternal summer at that hemisphere. The other hemisphere would be in continual darkness or winter.

Hope this helps!

Answer 7

At 90*, no seasons at all.
At 0*, 2 seasons-- summer on "sunny" side, winter on opposite side.

I think Venus, (or Mercury) has the latter arrangement..

Answer 8

You would probably have 13 summers and no winter.I think they call it global warming.