Vocab
What is a Milankovitch cycle?
Cycles that cause variation in the amount of solar energy reaching the earth.
What causes seasons?
Tilt of the earths axis
Who discovered Obliquity?
Oenopides
What does Pluto's orbit look like in terms of eccentricity
What is a very large eccentricity
This item is a visual analogy that can be used to describe the motion of the Earth's axis during the precession.
What is a spinning top?
The shape of Earths orbit
This term describes gradual shift in earth's axial tilt, it affects how severe seasonal changed are
Axial tilt
When was Obliquity discovered
What is a planet’s closest approach to the sun called, and what is the furthest approach from the sun called?
Perihelion is the closest, and aphelion is the furthest
After the Northern Hemisphere's seasonal shift in 12,000 years, in what month will Summer start? What about Winter?
What is Summer in January and Winter in July
What does "obliquity" mean?
The tilt of the Earths axis
What causes the tilt of the earth's axis
An object the size of mars collided with early earth
What is the current tilt of the Earths axis?
23.5 degrees
Eccentricity is the measure of what in an orbit
What is the elliptical
The period, in years, it takes for Earth's axis to complete one full precession?
How long is 26,000 years
What does "Precession" mean?
Direction of the earths axis
What are the Polar Regions (or the Arctic/Antarctic Circles)?
the areas surrounding the Earth's geographic poles, located between the Arctic/Antarctic Circles
How long are obliquity variation cycles?
41,000 years
How long are eccentricity variation cycles?
What is 100,000 years
This celestial body, along with the Sun, provides the gravitational pulls that cause the Earth's axis to move in a conical motion.
What is the Moon
What is the Ecliptic?
The planets had irregular paths but never strayed from the sun
Over the Obliquity variation cycle, the tilt of Earth's axis changes gradually between what two values?
22.1 and 24.5
Is the axis's tilt currently decreasing or increasing and what does it cause?
Decreasing, which will mean the South hemisphere will receive more Solar radiation
The larger the eccentricity, the greater the difference in what type of radiation
What is solar radiation
This 23,000-year cycle is the average total period resulting from the combined effect of axial precession AND the precession of the eclipse?
What is the Overall Precession Cycle (or Climatic Precession Cycle)?