Empirical Earth · How We Know — History & the Cosmos

The seasons come from tilt, not distance

Earth is closest to the Sun in January, and the hemispheres run opposite seasons at once — only a 23.44° axial tilt fits.

The claim

“Seasons happen because the Sun moves closer and farther through the year.”

What is true

The Earth’s distance from the Sun does change through the year, by about five million kilometers.

What is measured

Perihelion is in early January. The Earth is about 3% closer to the Sun in northern winter than in northern summer. The tilt, not that tiny distance change, makes the seasons, and makes them opposite north and south.

What would show this is wrong

simultaneous identical seasons in both hemispheres, or the hottest month tracking perihelion (January) worldwide.

Sources

  1. Seasons are caused by axial tilt, not distance. Earth’s 23.44° axial tilt, not its distance from the Sun, drives the seasons: the planet is closest to the Sun (perihelion) in early January d link
  2. Samuel Rowbotham (“Parallax”), Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe , 1865. The founding text of the modern flat-Earth movement, and the source of most of the arguments answered in this refe link
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