It's official: Summer is here for Earth's Northern Hemisphere while winter arrives in the south and Google is celebrating with artful style.
Google has unveiled two doodles to mark the 2020 June solstice, one for summer as it begins in the north today (June 20) and another for winter, which begins in the Southern Hemisphere. It also marks the day with the most daylight hours in the north, and the fewest in south.
Related: Stunning summer solstice photos (gallery)
The summer solstice is a moment when the sun reaches its farthest point north of the celestial equator in the sky. That will happen at 5:43:32 p.m. EDT (21:43:32 GMT), when the sun will reach a point directly overhead of the Tropic of Cancer (latitude 23.5 degrees north) in the central Pacific Ocean, 817 miles (1,314 kilometers) east-northeast from Honolulu.
Google's summer solstice doodle features an intrepid flamingo soaring through a sunny sky in an hot air balloon.
While the solstice heralds hotter days for Earth's northern regions, it marks the shift from fall to winter (and longer nights) in the Southern Hemisphere. Google's doodle for the event featured a snowy night as a penguin sight-sees in a balloon.
So wherever you may be, have a happy summer (or winter) solstice for 2020!
- Infinite loop: see the sun's yearlong figure-eight in the sky (photo)
- Why the night sky changes with the seasons
- What if winter lasted for years like it does on 'Game of Thrones'?
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
