What if the Earths axis were tilted 90° to the ecliptic?
I was recently looking at the webpage “Seasons of the Year” and I read about what would happen if the earth’s axis were perpendicular to the ecliptic. I was just wondering if you could give me some insight on what would happen if the ecliptic was inclined at a 90-degree angle with respect to the celestial equator? Would this mean that earth’s orbit would travel along this “new ecliptic” while the north and south poles are travelling along this “new ecliptic”? Reply The hypothetical case you describe does in fact exist: for some unknown reason, the spin axis of the planet Uranus is almost exactly in the ecliptic. That means that at some time one pole (let me call it the north pole, even though that “north” direction is almost perpendicular to the northward direction from Earth) points at the Sun. Then the northern hemisphere is in constant light and the other one in constant darkness. Half an orbit later–42 years or so–the roles are reversed. And halfway between those times, the plane
