OT: Science Question

Ha ha, last two answers are interesting! So looks like no advance on it just being the tilt and angle light strikes the hemispheres in summer / winter.

BUT it is amazing that that given range is within the zone of being able to cause molecules and elements to change state, etc... Makes you wonder. I remember reading 2001 and Arthur C Clarke goes off at one point from what I remember on beings of gas or something existing either within Jupiter itself or one of its moons, and living an existence unfathomable to humans.

Maybe the same thing is at play here - given the distance of millions of millions and even allowing for tilt and slight variation in light intensity caused, maybe the seemingly incredible variation, and changes of state it can cause, is only incredible to us and in the greater scheme insignificant...