The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude A circle of latitude, on the Earth, is an imaginary east-west circle connecting all locations that share a given latitude. A location's position along a circle of latitude is given by its longitude that mark maps of the Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest, most massive, and densest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 3] or Terra.[note 4]. It lies 23° A degree , usually denoted by ° (the degree symbol), is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians. When that angle is with respect to a reference meridian, it indicates a location along a great circle of a sphere, such as Earth (see Geographic coordinate system), Mars, or the 26′ 22″ south of the equator The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass. In simpler language, it is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere, and marks the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. This event occurs at the December solstice A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. The name is derived from the Latin sol and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun, when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun to its maximum extent.
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