BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Cosmic Winter Celebrations

It's December 1st today and children (and some adults!) are opening the first window of the advent calendar.

There is an ancient history behind the Winter Solstice - click on the link to find out more.

For six months, each day has been shorter than the last, the Sun lower in the sky. Will it disappear altogether and leave the people bereft in the dark cold winter? The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and is associated with more festivals than any other astronomical event.

And of course readers in the southern hemisphere also have their winter solstice and ancient festivals, but in June, not December.

Here is an infographic that shows what's happening astronomically when we have solstices or equinoxes.

What Was the Star of Bethlehem?

The Star of Bethlehem is one of the loveliest symbols of Christmas. But what was it? Simply an inspired idea to emphasize the spiritual importance of the story? Or was it based on an actual astronomical happening?

That's a lot of cosmically cool stuff Mona

This is my favorite time of year - I love the movement into the Winter Solstice. I don't even mind that it gets dark so early

Galactic Winter Games are a tribute to the winter Olympic games. It's a tour of some really cool cosmic sights – as well as some hot ones, such as one of the biggest explosions in the Universe.

More good stuff to come, Deanna. Hope you enjoy it.

But surely people who live in California have a whole different understanding of winter to most of North America and northern Europe? In my early years in Britain, I'd have happily traded a British summer for a California winter any old time. (Now I'm grateful not to have a midwestern winter or a Scandinavian one!)

There are numerous cold geysers that spray out icy particles, some of which go to form one of Saturn's rings. However most of them fall back to the surface as a very fine powder snow. One planetary scientist described it as perfect for skiing. Here is a perspective view of "snow"-covered slopes of Enceladus. It's north of the edge of the active south polar region.

(Credit: NASA/ Processing by Paul Schenk (Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston)

Mona, yesterday I got dressed, put on a scarf and sweater, and went out to my car. As I got in my car, I discarded the scarf and sweater - then I turned on the air conditioning. :::sigh:::

One of these days I'll get to wear my favorite scarf!! It may not be till the end of January, but that day, that one beautiful and amazingly cold day, will come

On February 15, 2013 a small asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia doing considerable damage and causing a large number of injuries. Winners of gold medals at the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia on February 15, 2014 were given special medals that included a fragment of the asteroid. Here is a worker shaping one of the medals. (Credit: Credit: RIA Novosti / Aleksandr Kondratuk)

The Olympic Committee wouldn't allow these medals to be awarded during the games so they had to be given out afterwards.

You can find out more about things from space that hit the Earth in Meteor or Meteoroid and Other Posers.

Comet Lovejoy (December 16, 2014) is framed like a cosmic Christmas tree with starry decorations in this colorful portrait. Its lovely coma is tinted green by diatomic C2 gas fluorescing in sunlight. A long period comet, this Comet Lovejoy should return again ... in about 8,000 years.

(Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach/SEN)