When the Sun is out of view and dark, what do you see in our sky? Yes! Stars and planets appear in our night sky. If you watch the planets and stars carefully, most of them seem to be moving across our sky. Some go in and out of view, appearing to set and rise like the Sun. This happens because Earth rotates. Just as the Sun appears to move across our sky, the stars and planets also appear to move across our sky. As Earth rotates it also takes a long journey around the Sun. This yearly journey is called a revolution. This revolution takes about 365 days, or one year. On its journey around the Sun, Earth follows an orbit. An orbit is the path an object in space follows as it revolves around another object. We can understand these ideas of rotation and revolution better by using a globe of Earth as a model.

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