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Tropic of Capricorn



Tropic of Capricorn
Tropic of Capricorn. Image source: Wikipedia Commons

A line of latitude, currently 23° 26' 17" south of the Equator, which marks the sourthern boundary of the tropics. It indicates the farthest south position at which the Sun appears directly overhead at noon. The Sun is vertically overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn on December 21–22, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The line is so-called because when it was named the Sun was, in its position in the sky, in the constellation Caricornus at the December solstice.


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