What is the cause of Uttarayan (summer solstice) and Dakshinayan (winter solstice) of the Sun on the Earth?

Question

Philoid · Accepted Answer

As we all know Earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit. So there exist two such places where the earth is the farthest distance from the sun and two other places where the distance from earth and sun is minimum. Here is the big picture:

From the above figure, it is clear that Earth is closest and farthest point to Sun at exactly two times in a year. At the farthest point, Sun ray travels the longest path through the sky as a result northern/southern hemisphere receives the longest daylight. This is called summer solstice (also known as midsummer).

The winter solstice is the day of shortest day period of daylight and the longest night.

Addition Information:

● For northern hemisphere summer solstice (longest daylight and shortest night) is happening at point A.

And winter solstice (longest night and shortest daylight) happen at point B.

● For southern hemisphere summer solstice (longest daylight and shortest night) is happening at point B.

And winter solstice (longest night and shortest daylight) happen at point A.