What would happen if the world was on an 180 angle to its orbit of the Sun?

Question

Ok, to clarify... The imaginary line between the north and south pole around which the world turns is, obviously, directly vertical (that is, at a right angle to its path of orbit around the Sun, if you visualise one of those solar system map things that you see in science textbooks etc).

What would happen if it was in fact 'vertical', so that when it orbited, all areas of the planet would be at a constant distance from the Sun at different times of year? Would seasons be eliminated? Would the equinox effect be eliminated? Would anything else happen?

Thanks very much if you can help me with this =)

"The imaginary line between the north and south pole around which the world turns is, obviously, directly vertical"

I mean it is NOT directly vertical, sorry about that! :D

Answer 1

1. First, the side effects would have essentially nothing to do with the changes in _distance_ from the sun. The poles would only be about 0.004% farther from the sun than the equator would; this is a negligible difference. The effects are actually caused by the _angle_ at which the sunlight hits the surface. When sunlight hits the ground at an oblique angle (such as at the poles), the energy is "spread out" over more square feet of ground, so the energy per square foot is much less (as the cosine of the angle) compared to when the sun is directly overhead.

As further evidence of this: The earth is quite a bit closer to the sun in January than it is in July; yet obviously (in the northern hemisphere) January is colder. The angle has a much bigger effect than the distance.

2. The seasons would not exist. The existence of the seasons is a direct result of the "tilt" of the earth's axis. In the summer, thanks to the earth's tilt, the sun shines on the ground from a much higher angle than it does in the winter. As explained above, the higher angle heats up the ground more effectively.

All effects of the seasons would of course also fail to exist; such as the annual growing and shrinking of the polar ice; the seasonal changes in plant life; the seasonal changes in animal behavior, etc. Every part of the year would be just like every other part. We _might_ notice a slight warming trend in January, when the earth is slightly closer to the sun.

3. The equinox would be eliminated. The equinox is the moment when the sun changes from standing over the northern hemispher to standing over the southern hemsiphere (or vice versa). This is an effect of the earth's tilt. If the axis weren't tilted, the sun would be over the equator all the time.

Answer 2

First off the earth is NOT at a right angle in its rotation to the sun. The earth is actually tilted by about 23 degrees so that in the summer the northern hemisphere gets more sunlight and longer days than the southern hemisphere. In the winter the opposite is true -- the southern hemisphere gets more sun.

Now to your question: If the earth's axis were indeed at a right angle to the plane of it's rotation around the sun the biggest difference would be the fact that our days would be same length throughout the year. We'd also see far less variance in the temperatures between summer and winter. There would still be SOME seasonal variance simply because the earth's path around the sun is eliptical.

If indeed the axis were at a right angle I have to wonder how life might have evolved differently.

Answer 3

First of all, when you tried to clarify, you made a typo. ;) The poles are not vertical to the plane of the Earth's orbit (the ecliptic).

If the poles were vertical though, the first obvious thing would be that the day / night ratio would always be 12/12. The sun would always be over the equator.

Seasons would probably not change at all. Temps would be fairly constant in any given area with lowering temps as you head towards the poles.

Answer 4

Seasons would then be eliminated, because at all times of the year, the respective points on the globe would be at the same distance from the sun. Regions in the far northern and southern latitudes would have a constant winter, and regions closer to the equator would have a constant summer. There would also be no equinox because the entire year, the days and nights would be equal.

Answer 5

There would be no seasons if the earth was on a 180 degree angle to the sun, same as if it were on a 0 degree angle. All that would happen besides that is the western hemisphere and the eastern hemisphere would become the new north and south hemispheres (so we could make sense of the whole thing) and visa versa.

Answer 6

O.ok., for starters-if the Earth stopped rotating on its axis, there could be little flow interior the ambience as properly because of the fact the oceans. this could effect the two our climate and the temperature of the ambience-plus its potential to eliminate impurities (smog, volcanic ash, etc.). If the Earth have been to end in its orbit around the solar, it does not have sufficient forward speed=centrifugal tension, to maintain a superb course. ultimately gravity (the two from the solar or outer area), could take over, at which ingredient it incredibly is a one-way cost ticket to the two of those. so a techniques, i did not see any point out of the Moon in those solutions. because of the fact it incredibly is held in stress wager. the Earth and the solar, it could maximum in all probability hit Earth in the two circumstances. it particularly is a foul hair day. Afterthought-it could even impression plate flow under the Earth's crust, too. not that it could count-considering the fact that anybody could be long gone. This (plate tectonic element), is yet another question...

Answer 7

Hi I think you have got a lot of creativity. Fine I dont feel there would be any change in the season, however there could be topological changes in the planet . Say the poles may feel hotter when they come in straight line.

But there would be a very serious change when the type of the orbit changes say to a circular path, which I suppose to be highly impossible due to the gravitational force between the earth and the sun.

Answer 8

Earth's rotational axis is currently tilted about 23-degrees, and that's why we have different seasons. If the rotational axis was not tilted at all (..zero-degrees..) then we wouldn't have any seasons. All hemispheres of Earth would receive the same amount of sunlight all year long.

The one answer you got about there not being any day and night is totally incorrect. Earth would still rotate, which is why we have day and night in the first place.

Answer 9

If you tilted the earths axis 180 degrees it would simply be rotating backwards. It would still make one revolution per day and we would still have seasons...