About the Author. Lincoln Peirce began creating comics in the 6th grade (just like Big Nate!). He went on to teach art at a New York City High School. Lincoln created the cartoon-strip character Big Nate in 1991, naming the character after a nickname he gave his older brother as a kid.
Sidereal year, from one time a particular star is in a given position to the next time 365.25636 days. Anomalistic year, from the time the Earth is at its closest to the Sun to the next time 365.25964 days. What causes the seasons? The Earth in southern summer and winter. The short answer is the tilt of the Earth or put more impressively, the obliquity of the ecliptic. The axis of the Earth is tilted by 23.4 degrees to the plane in which it travels around the Sun, the ecliptic.
Orbital characteristics. Earth spins on an imaginary line called an axis that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, while also orbiting the sun. It takes Earth 23.439 hours to complete a rotation on its axis, and roughly 365.26 days to complete an orbit around the sun. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted in relation to the ecliptic plane, an imaginary surface through Earth's orbit around the sun.