Depending on the volume of questions that get asked, this one might not get answered. Unfortunately this question has nothing to do with the topic of discussion, but being a fan of NDT, would he ever do Dancing With The Stars?

Hey Dr. Tyson….

Wishing you & your family a sparklingly joyful holiday season.

With love,
Joe & Tracie Wilke

Chuck Nice is a great co-host,please keep him.

Happy Holidays =]

Great as always, I really do love the Cosmic Queries sections.

Why talk about seasonal temperature differences at all without mentioning Earth’s axial tilt of roughly 23 degrees? Seriously, Neil, please don’t disappoint me like this in the future.

Tilted, Neil never mentioned axial tilt by name, but he did describe its effects (the sun drops lower on the horizon) as the cause of the temperature change.

Exactly my point, Jeff, he didn’t give the cause. He described the effect – but the person who asked the question wanted to know why…

Neil’s explanation was decidedly lacking. He didn’t mention axial tilt, nor did he mention how the tilt coupled with Earth’s revolution about the Sun causes sunlight to become more or less direct for the Northern and Southern hemispheres, alternately.

Season’s Greetings. Merry Kwanzukamas, and a Happy New Year!

You can expect that anyone submitting a question on the average temperatures of seasons hasn’t been to the first class of introductory astronomy. NDT did a great job of giving an explanation that ANY person can understand and appreciate. One of the most important jobs of any scientist is to communicate what they know in a way that the general public can understand. It was a great response considering the audience.

Cheers!

The actual date of change to the gregorian calendar was 1582 not 84. Just to nitpick.

So I went on Google to look for the 6-story tall triangle on the Time-Life building that you can see from Rockerfeller Plaza and saw zilch. There was a blue logo-ish sculpture but no 6-story triangle. Is it gone or did Neil have one too many homemade egg nogs?

Forgot to say this is where Google puts you

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=time-life+nyc&ie=UTF-8&ei=aHPnUL6KJKbNiwLV_oHwCg&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAA

Michael: Dr. Tyson asked me to apologize for his error. He actually was referring to the McGraw-Hill Building at 1221 6th Avenue in NYC, 2 blocks south of the Time Life building. Here is a description of the triangle from Wikipedia:
“The sunken courtyard of this building contains a large metal triangle designed by Athelstan Spilhaus and fabricated by Tyler Elevator Products, arranged so the Sun aligns with its sides at solstices and equinoxes.[3] When built, the south-western corner held a display of scale models of planets in the Solar System. A mosaic map of the Earth survives in the north-western corner.” — Jeff

@Todd,

I was taught that the seasons result from Earth’s axial tilt in a public elementary school – by the 5th grade. I’m not exactly sure whether it was 3rd, 4th, or 5th. What “general public” audience are you talking about? I’d like to think that the U.S.’s public schools cover this information by the time students get through elementary or junior high school. Therefore, I’d like to suggest that this is pretty general knowledge that is taught to little kids. Otherwise, I would not have commented on what I saw as a significant omission by our beloved astrophysicist.

I know this is late coming, but January 1st does have religious relevance. It marks the eighth day after Jesus’s “birth” on the 25th (which the Church admits is most likely not Jesus’s actual birthday). In Jewish society, both then and now, the eighth day is when the male child is circumcised and entered into the Covenant of Israel.