This entry was posted on 12/19/2006 11:15 AM and is filed under Articles by J. Baker.
As I get older,
snow has begun to lose its magic.Maybe
it is because school won’t be closing and giving me a day off to sled or that I
have to have to drive in conditions that tax my patience.I still see its beauty; snow draped conifers,
soundless snow covered landscapes, moonlight reflecting off snow.Though the magic is fading and the cold seems
to penetrate my body ever deeper each year, I still look forward to
winter.The change of seasons appeals to
me as does witnessing life adjusting to new conditions.But there is more to it. I have come to realize that it is the winter
light which motivates me most during the winter.What is it about winter light?
After all it is
the same old Sun and the same old light.And when I say old, I mean old!Our Sol is 4.5 billion years old and makes up 99.8% of the mass of the
solar system.The energy we see as light
was made deep inside the Sun as four hydrogen atoms were combined under the extremely
intense pressure and temperature of nuclear fusion to produce one helium.So where does the energy come from?Well, the mass of the four hydrogen atoms is
greater than the resulting helium atom and the “lost” mass was converted to
energy.The energy is not light here, deep
in the Sun, but as it moves ever closer to the surface, it eventually becomes
light in the cleverly named layer of the Sun called the photosphere.It took one million years for the energy to
reach the photosphere and it will take only 8 minutes for the light to travel
the 93,000,000 miles to Earth and warm our faces.
The Sun is 70%
hydrogen, 28% helium (the other 2% are the elements we learned in high school
chemistry) and is devouring 700 million tons of hydrogen while producing 5
million tons of energy every second.But
don’t be alarmed, we will not be running out of hydrogen soon.It will take the Sun another 5 billion years
to use up what hydrogen it has.And
while interesting, these Sun facts do not help me understand why winter light
is special.
So if the Sun will
not reveal the reason maybe Earth has the answer.We experience seasons on Earth because the
rotational axis relative to the orbital plane is tilted 23.5 degrees.This causes our length of day and angle of
light from the Sun to vary throughout the year.It gives us seasons and the unique light of winter.The angle at which light strikes the northern
hemisphere creates in effect an extended sunrise then a brief day followed by a lengthy sunset.The winter Sun hugs the horizon giving us
less daylight but more of the parts of the day we enjoy most – sunrise and
sunset.
Winter is rightly characterized as the season of
death.But as with all things winter is
more. A winter’s day gives us an
extended sunrise to wake slowly to and time for a second cup of coffee then a
long sunset to reflect on the day.The
magic of winter is the quality of the light it gives us.
