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The point towards which the Earth in its solar orbit is directed at any given instant is known as the "apex of the Earth's way". [4] [5] From a vantage point above the north pole of either the Sun or Earth, Earth would appear to revolve in a counterclockwise direction around the Sun. From the same vantage point, both the Earth and the Sun would ...
Earth's rotation imaged by Deep Space Climate Observatory, showing tilt. Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise.
If a standard right-handed Cartesian coordinate system is used, with the x-axis to the right and the y-axis up, the rotation R(θ) is counterclockwise. If a left-handed Cartesian coordinate system is used, with x directed to the right but y directed down, R(θ) is clockwise.
Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite sense of rotation or revolution is (in Commonwealth English) anticlockwise (ACW) or (in North American English) counterclockwise (CCW). [1]
For geocentric orbits, Earth's equatorial plane as the reference plane, and the First Point of Aries (FPA) as the origin of longitude. In this case, the longitude is also called the right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN). The angle is measured eastwards (or, as seen from the north, counterclockwise) from the FPA to the node.
Rotation can have a sign (as in the sign of an angle): a clockwise rotation is a negative magnitude so a counterclockwise turn has a positive magnitude. A rotation is different from other types of motions: translations , which have no fixed points, and (hyperplane) reflections , each of them having an entire ( n − 1) -dimensional flat of ...
The terms are derived from the Latin words for "left" (sinister) and "right" (dexter). Other disciplines use different terms (such as dextro-and laevo-rotary in chemistry, or clockwise and anticlockwise in physics) or simply use left and right (as in anatomy). Relative direction and chirality are distinct concepts.
Meteoroids in a retrograde orbit around the Sun hit the Earth with a faster relative speed than prograde meteoroids and tend to burn up in the atmosphere and are more likely to hit the side of the Earth facing away from the Sun (i.e. at night) whereas the prograde meteoroids have slower closing speeds and more often land as meteorites and tend ...