The Tilt is at 23.5 deg

Right on with Pluto and Neptune!
"jojo" wrote in message
. ..
Thanks for setting me straight on that!
What is the tilt? 32 degrees?
wow, a little closer or further away and this planet would be intolerable.

Did I read somewhere that because of the elliptical orbits of Neptune and
Pluto that they
actually change places in their relationship to the sun? meaning,
sometimes
Pluto is no the farthest planet?

Thanks again Ron!

jojo

"Ron Miller" wrote in message
...

"jojo" wrote in message
.. .
so, the planets revolve around the sun in an elliptical orbit?
all the models I have seen show the orbits as circular.

That's because many popular books have over-simplified diagrams.

This explains why we have summer and winter, and why mars is closer to
us
now?

No to the first, yes to the second. The difference in the distance of
the
earth from the sun in winter as compared to summer is negligible. The
seasons are actually caused by the tilt of the earth's axis. When it is
summer in the northern hemisphere, that hemisphere is tilted toward the
sun.
When it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it is tilted away from the
sun. (Just the opposite is true for the southern hemisphere).

RM