Rhythmic beauty about the stars, Sun, Moon, and Earth I bet you’ve never noticed

February 17, 2022 by Joshua
in Education, Models, Nature

You probably learned that the Earth wasn’t flat, nor at the center of the universe, and figured you knew the right answers for why everything seemed to rotate around it: the stars, sun, and moon.

Earthrise

If Earth was at the center and the stars, sun, and moon rotated around it, it would like like it does. That model explains what we see simply. So why do they look that way?

Did you realize there are different reasons for each?

The stars look like they rotate around the Earth because the Earth rotates on its axis.

The sun looks like it rotates around the Earth partly because the Earth rotates on its axis, but also because the Earth orbits the sun, so we see it rotate differently than the stars.

Like the sun, the moon looks like it rotates around the Earth partly because the Earth rotates on its axis, but also because the moon orbits the Earth, so we see it rotate differently than the stars and the moon.

Do you see why I call this beauty rhythmic? These three behaviors of the Earth rotating, orbiting, and being orbited are different behaviors leading to things looking differently that look similar.

It’s there to be noticed. I find the symmetry beautiful when I pay attention to it, but I think most people shrug off even looking for it. Despite my astrophysics degree, I’m not that big a fan of astronomy, but I love this natural beauty where I find it.

I find it everywhere I look if I’m in the right mindset for it.

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