Equinox on a Spinning Earth
			
		
		
		
			When does the line between day and night become vertical?
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow is an 
equinox on planet Earth, 
a time of year when day and night are most nearly equal.
At an equinox, the 
Earth's terminator -- 
the dividing line between day and night -- becomes vertical and connects the 
north and 
south poles.
The featured time-lapse video 
demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet Earth in twelve seconds.
From geosynchronous orbit, the 
Meteosat satellite recorded 
these infrared images 
of the Earth every day at the same 
local time. 
The video started at the 
September 2010 
equinox with the terminator line being vertical.
As the 
Earth revolved around the Sun, the 
terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provides less daily sunlight 
to the northern hemisphere, 
causing winter 
in the north.
As the year progressed, the 
March 2011 
equinox arrived halfway through the video, followed by the terminator tilting the other way, 
causing winter 
in the southern hemisphere -- and summer in the north.
The captured year ends again with the 
September equinox, 
concluding another of billions of trips the Earth has taken 
-- and will take -- around the Sun.