Winter Is Coming, but First Let's Welcome Fall

An eventful day on the equinox front: We've entered autumn, as of 10:21am EDT, per National Geographic. That means that Sept. 22 will see 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night in the Northern Hemisphere, and our part of the Earth will start to lean further away from the sun as we head into winter. If the arrival of autumn is a depressing signal for you that we're hurtling toward the upcoming cold-weather solstice, the magazine points out it could be worse, a la Game of Thrones: The angle of Uranus' axial tilt is so extreme that its winters last 42 years at a time. Some other tidbits as the leaves start to fall:

• The Washington Post offers a scientific Q&A for all things autumnal.

• Don't miss Google's main page, where, per SearchEngineLand.com, its Doodle continues the story of a bunch of rocks who were there with us to witness March's vernal equinox.
• The Sun does some myth-busting about first-day-of-fall egg balancing.
• Bustle offers some ideas—some practical, some hedonistic—for celebrating the change of season.
• Circle back to National Geographic for a list of celestial viewings this week, including a brightly shining Saturn.

(More autumn stories.)