Procession
Imagine you and your friends are playing a game of Follow the Leader. You all walk in a line behind the leader, right? Now imagine that instead of walking in a line, you all walk in a circle around a playground. The leader would still be at the front, but each of you would be slightly behind the person in front of you, forming a big circle.
Now, imagine this circle is our planet Earth, and the leader is the sun. This is how our planet moves through space! This circular path is called an orbit. But, just like when you play Follow the Leader, sometimes our planet wobbles a little bit in its orbit. This wobble is called procession.
When we talk about procession specifically, we're usually referring to the way the Earth wobbles on its axis as it rotates. This wobble takes about 26,000 years to make one full circle! That's a long time. Just like your toys or your bike wheels might wobble if they're not perfectly balanced, the Earth's axis wobbles a bit as it rotates around the sun.
So, why does this matter? Well, this wobble changes the position of the stars in our sky very, very slowly. Over thousands of years, the stars appear to move in a repeating pattern. This means that the constellation maps we use today will look different thousands of years from now! It's like looking at the same playground from a slightly different angle each time you play Follow the Leader.
Overall, procession is a way to describe the wobbly path that our planet takes as it moves through space, and this movement affects the appearance of stars in our sky over thousands of years.
Now, imagine this circle is our planet Earth, and the leader is the sun. This is how our planet moves through space! This circular path is called an orbit. But, just like when you play Follow the Leader, sometimes our planet wobbles a little bit in its orbit. This wobble is called procession.
When we talk about procession specifically, we're usually referring to the way the Earth wobbles on its axis as it rotates. This wobble takes about 26,000 years to make one full circle! That's a long time. Just like your toys or your bike wheels might wobble if they're not perfectly balanced, the Earth's axis wobbles a bit as it rotates around the sun.
So, why does this matter? Well, this wobble changes the position of the stars in our sky very, very slowly. Over thousands of years, the stars appear to move in a repeating pattern. This means that the constellation maps we use today will look different thousands of years from now! It's like looking at the same playground from a slightly different angle each time you play Follow the Leader.
Overall, procession is a way to describe the wobbly path that our planet takes as it moves through space, and this movement affects the appearance of stars in our sky over thousands of years.
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