Winter solstice began on Sunday at 6:03 p.m., making December 21 the longest night of the year, and also one of the longest nights ever since 1912, according to Vox.com.
The solstice occurs at 6:03 p.m. in eastern time, and 11:53 p.m. pacific time, according to Slate.com. In the northern hemisphere, the solstice occurs when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn.
Those living in the Northern Hemisphere will experience the longest night of their year, according to Vox.com.
The Northern hemisphere gets more night every year on December 21, or 22, due to the Earth's orbit around the sun on a tilted axis, Vox.com reported.
Due to the tile, the Northern hemisphere gets the shortest amount of sunlight on the above days of the year, and on June 21 or 22 locations in the Northern Hemisphere experience the longest day of the year with the most sunlight, according to Vox.com.
For the Southern Hemisphere, that is reveresed, Vox.com reported. Locations in the Southern Hemisphere have their longest days in December, and longest nights in June, Vox.com reported.
For those in the north, the sun stands still during this time, which is the meaning of solstice, according to Slate.
Before today, the longest night occurred in 1912, MTV.com reported. Tonight's winter solstice could have been longer than that of 1912s, but due to climate change.
Climate change has caused the earth to heat up, causing major melt downs of large masses of ice, which redistributes the Earth's mass and speeds up the rotation speed, according to MTV.
