Why does the sun set?
Talk about it together
What colors do you like to look for in the sky at sunset?
What about...?
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Transcript
Why does the sun seem to set at the end of the day?
Earth is a big round ball spinning all the time. The side facing the sun has daytime.
As Earth turns, your home moves away from the sun. The sky looks darker and the sun seems to go down.
Soon your home faces away from the sun. That is nighttime, until Earth turns your way back to sunlight.
So the sun does not really go down. Earth spins, and that makes sunset happen.
For grown-ups: the science
The sun seems to set because Earth spins, turning our part of Earth away from sunlight.
Earth rotates once about every 24 hours. As a location rotates away from the Sun, the Sun appears to move below the horizon, producing sunset and then night.