Why do we have day and night?

In the morning the Sun seems to climb up the sky, and in the evening it slips away. But the Sun isn’t moving like that at all. Something much bigger is happening — and you are riding along!

Earth spins like a top

Our planet Earth is always turning around, like a slow giant top. We call this turning rotation. One whole spin takes about 24 hours — that’s one day.

You don’t feel it because everything spins together with you: the houses, the trees, even the air. But you are zooming around all the time, day and night.

One side faces the Sun

The Sun can only shine on the side of Earth that is facing it. That bright side has daytime.

The other side is turned away into shadow. There it is dark, and that’s night. As Earth keeps spinning, your side slowly turns toward the Sun (sunrise!) and later turns away again (sunset!).

Around and around

So morning, noon, evening and night come back again and again, simply because Earth never stops turning. While you sleep, children on the other side of the world are playing in the sunshine.

Wonder fact: Earth is spinning faster than a race car! At the middle of the planet it turns at over 1,600 kilometres an hour — yet it feels perfectly still.