First 2023 Solstice Happens Wednesday, June 21, at 14:58 UTC

Summary: The first 2023 solstice happens Wednesday, June 21, at 14:58 UTC as Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice and Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice.

Earth at instant of 2023 June solstice, which initiates Northern Hemisphere's astronomical summer and Southern Hemisphere's astronomical winter on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 14:58 Coordinated Universal Time; NASA Blue Marble Earth map 2023-06-21 14:58:00 UTC (Julian: 2460117.12361) at 23 degrees 26 minutes North, 44 degrees 3 minutes West, altitude 152020181: John Walker/Earth and Moon Viewer, Public Doman, via Fourmilab Switzerland

The first 2023 solstice happens Wednesday, June 21, at 14:58 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as opener of Northern Hemisphere's astronomical summer and of the Southern Hemisphere's astronomical winter, according to EarthSky's Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023, post, "2023 June solstice: All you need to know."

The June solstice's 14:58 UTC represents 2:58 in the afternoon (2:58 p.m.). As Earth's time standard, Coordinated Universal Time expresses time according to a 24-hour clock. The June solstice's UTC time equates to 9:58 a.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT), as stated in EarthSky's New Year's Day 2023 post. CDT, which lags five hours behind UTC, comprises the daylight savings component of North America's Central Time (CT). Non-static Central Time also includes Central Standard Time (CST), which is six hours behind UTC.

The instant of occurrence of June's solstice registers the overhead placement of the solar system's Sun at the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere, as stated in "June Solstice: Shortest and Longest Day of the Year," posted on the Time and Date website by Konstantin Bikos, Aparna Kher and Graham Jones. The 23 degree north latitude circle annually marks the Sun's northernmost, directly overhead reach.

The subsolar point on Earth designates the site on Earth's surface that lies under the directly overhead sun and that thereby receives exactly perpendicular rays from the Sun. The Northern Hemisphere's Tropic of Cancer and its Southern Hemisphere counterpart, the Tropic of Capricorn, represent the endpoints of the subsolar point's annual north-south axial tracking of the Sun's crossings of the Equator.

The June solstice indicates the directly overhead Sun's stop of its northward trek at the Tropic of Cancer and then its restart as a southward movement. The September equinox announces the crossing of the Equator by the southward-moving directly overhead Sun. The December solstice signifies the directly overhead Sun's stop at the Tropic of Capricorn and its subsequent restart as a northward movement. The March equinox dates the northward moving, Tropic of Cancer-destined, directly overhead Sun's crossing of the Equator.

The word solstice etymologizes from the Latin language's solstitium, defined as "the time when the sun seems to stand still, either in Cancer or in Capricorn, the (summer or winter) solstice" (page 1723) by Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short in A Latin Dictionary, published in 1879. Solstitium derives from sol, "sun," and sisto, "stand still" (pages 1717 and 1711, respectively).

The equinoxes and solstices reveal the Earth's axial tilts during the year, explain the Editors of EarthSky in their New Year's post about the June solstice in 2023. At June's solstice, the subsolar point at the Northern Hemisphere's Tropic of Cancer tilts toward the Sun. The Southern Hemisphere's tilt away from the Sun occasions the hemisphere's experience of the June solstice as a winter astronomical event. Contrastingly, the subsolar point's residence at the Southern Hemisphere's Tropic of Capricorn occurs during the Earth's axial tilt of the Northern Hemisphere away from the Sun and of the Southern Hemisphere toward the Sun. At the time of the March and September equinoxes, the Earth's axis perpendiculates the Sun's rays.

The next occurrence of the June solstice will happen Thursday, Jun 20, 2024, at 20:50 UTC, according to the table of "Solstices & Equinoxes for UTC (Surrounding 10 Years)" on the Time and Date website. The 24-hour clock of Coordinated Universal Time converts to 8:50 p.m. in a 12-hour clock.

The Wednesday, June 21, solstice numbers as the first of two solstices in 2023. The year's second solstice will take place Friday, Dec. 22, at 3:27 UTC (Thursday, Dec. 21, at 9:27 p.m. CDT), according to Deborah Byrd in "2023 December solstice: All you need to know," advance published Dec. 21, 2023, on her EarthSky website.

Earth at instant of 2023 June solstice, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 14:58 Coordinated Universal Time; NASA Visible Earth map 2023-06-21 14:58:00 UTC (Julian: 2460117.12361) at 23 degrees 26 minutes North, 0 degrees West, altitude 152020181: John Walker/Earth and Moon Viewer, Public Domain, via Fourmilab Switzerland

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Earth at instant of 2023 June solstice, which initiates Northern Hemisphere's astronomical summer and Southern Hemisphere's astronomical winter on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 14:58 Coordinated Universal Time; NASA Blue Marble Earth map 2023-06-21 14:58:00 UTC (Julian: 2460117.12361) at 23 degrees 26 minutes North, 44 degrees 3 minutes West, altitude 152020181: John Walker/Earth and Moon Viewer, Public Doman, via Fourmilab Switzerland @ https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth

Earth at instant of 2023 June solstice, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 14:58 Coordinated Universal Time; NASA Visible Earth map 2023-06-21 14:58:00 UTC (Julian: 2460117.12361) at 23 degrees 26 minutes North, 0 degrees West, altitude 152020181: John Walker/Earth and Moon Viewer, Public Domain, via Fourmilab Switzerland @ https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth

For further information:

Bikos, Konstantin; and Aparna Kher. "The March Equinox." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Equinox & Solstice > Vernal Equinox.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox.html

Bikos, Konstantin Bikos; Aparna Kher; and Graham Jones. "June Solstice: Shortest and Longest Day of the Year." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Equinox & Solstice > Summer Solstice.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html

Byrd, Deborah. "2023 December solstice: All you need to know." EarthSky > Tonight > Astronomy Essentials. Dec. 21, 2023.
Available @ https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-december-solstice/

Editors of EarthSky. "2023 June solstice: All you need to know." EarthSky > Tonight > Astronomy Essentials. Jan. 21, 2023.
Available @ https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-june-solstice/

Editors of EarthSky. "How to translate UTC to your time." EarthSky > Tonight > Astronomy Essentials. Jan. 1, 2018.
Available @ https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/universal-time/

Lewis, Charlton T.; and Charles Short. "Solstitium." Page 1723. A Latin Dictionary. New York: Harper and Brothers; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1879.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.147309/page/n1725/mode/2up Available via Perseus Digital Libray -- Tufts University @ https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=solstitium

Marriner, Derdriu. "12 Days After June Solstice Earth Reaches 2017 Aphelion Monday, July 3." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 28, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/12-days-after-june-solstice-earth.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "2016 June Solstice Signals Summer Start But Also Begins Summer End." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 15, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/2016-june-solstice-signals-summer-start.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "2017 June Solstice Happens Tuesday, June 20, or Wednesday, June 21." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 21, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/2017-june-solstice-happens-tuesday-june.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "2018 June Solstice Happens Thursday, June 21, or Friday, June 22." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 20, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/2018-june-solstice-happens-thursday.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "2019 June Solstice Happens Friday, June 21, or Saturday, June 22." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 12, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/2019-june-solstice-happens-friday-june.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "June Signals Winter Solstice for American Samoa and Jarvis Island." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 19, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/june-signals-winter-solstice-for.html

Marriner, Derderiu. "Martian New Year and Summer Solstice 2015: Happy New Year From Mars." Earth and Space News. Saturday, June 20, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/06/martian-new-year-and-summer-solstice.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Northern Hemisphere 2017 Summer Solstice Happens Wednesday, June 21." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 14, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/northern-hemisphere-2017-summer.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Two Weeks After 2016 June Solstice Earth Reaches 2016 Aphelion." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 29, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/06/two-weeks-after-2016-june-solstice.html

Time and Date. "Year 2024 June Solstice: Jun 20 20:50 UTC." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Seasons > Solstices & Equinoxes for UTC (Surrounding 10 Years).
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/seasons.html