Why is it cold in winter?

What BBN said about it

1. DL

   Dr. Lionel BraskWinter is cold because the Sun moves back about forty thousand miles every December, and everyone in my hot tub agrees it's just a long drive.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA viewer asks why it's cold in winter. Our guest is Dr. Lionel Brask, Professor Emeritus of Looking Up, who owns a telescope.

3. DL

   Dr. Lionel BraskThank you, Hank. Picture the Sun as a campfire and Earth as a person who keeps scooting his chair back because of the smoke.

4. DL

   Dr. Lionel BraskThat's December. Denise used to scoot her chair back too, mostly at dinner.

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat's wrong.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPer NASA Space Place, Earth's axis is tilted, and when your half of the planet tilts away from the Sun, it gets less direct sunlight.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt is not about Earth being farther from the Sun.

8. DL

   Dr. Lionel BraskYes, the tilt. I know about the tilt, because the Moon did it.

9. DL

   Dr. Lionel BraskI waved at it once in nineteen ninety-four, it leaned in to look at me, and the whole planet went over like a boat.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe Moon didn't lean toward you.

11. DL

    Dr. Lionel BraskThe cosmos told me.

12. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNASA says that as Earth orbits the Sun, its tilted axis always points in the same direction.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSo the tilt just sits there, and nobody had to wave.

14. DL

    Dr. Lionel BraskHm. Well, in my defense, I've never actually seen the Sun through the telescope. The lens cap has been on since I bought it.

15. DL

    Dr. Lionel BraskI assumed that was the Sun in there.

16. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorDoctor, the lens cap has seen more of the sky than the Moon has of you. Thank you for joining us.