Daily Current Affairs Article 23rd December 2020: December 21, is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, conversely, this day is Summer Solstice — in places like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, therefore, December 21 is the year’s longest day.
The Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees away from the perpendicular. This tilt — combined with factors such as Earth’s spin and orbit — leads to variations in the duration of Sunlight that any location on the planet receives on different days of the year.
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The winter solstice, hiemal solstice or hibernal solstice occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun.
It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern).
For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky. Its opposite is the summer solstice.
The winter solstice occurs during the hemisphere's winter.
In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (usually December 21 or 22) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (usually June 20 or 21).
