If Earth's obliquity was 157 degrees, would the seasons be more severe, less severe, or about the same?

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Physics

Esther Lloyd

1 April, 16:15

If Earth's obliquity was 157 degrees, would the seasons be more severe, less severe, or about the same?

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Mills · Answer 1

The severity of the seasons on Earth is given not by the distance Earth-Sun but by the tilt of the Earth axis. This happens because that the sun rays are oblique in winter and perpendicular in summer (thus the same quantity of sun rays heats a bigger surface in winter - oblique rays).

The present tild of the Earth axis is 23.5 degrees (from the vertical). If the axis were tilt at 157 degree this would be equivalent to 180-157 = 23 degree. Thus the severity of the seasons would be approximately the same but the seasons would be reversed (for example instead of winter we would have summer, instead of summer we would have winter).