Welcome to the official beginning of astronomical winter, which is marked by the winter solstice.
In 2024, the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere starts on December 21 around 4:20 am EST. While this time won’t be as dramatic as the 2020 conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the longest night of the year remains a significant turning point. Moving forward, the days (meaning hours of daylight) will gradually start to get longer again.
Curious why this happens? WIRED spoke with Tansu Daylan, a former Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) postdoctoral associate at MIT, to better understand the winter solstice