Stop the Sun

Joshua 10:12-14 - On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
"O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."

So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

It would seem, based on what science tells us today, that it was the Earth that actually stopped rotating for about a day. That would have given the perceived effect of the sun stopping "in the middle of the sky."

The Moon also would have stopped revolving around the Earth for the same period of time.

I wonder if these were the only 2 heavenly bodies that God put the brakes on. Did he actually stop the whole universe for a day?

I wonder if there are any other accounts of this day in other cultures' histories (besides the Book of Jashar). Halfway around the world it would have been night for the same length of time. As amazing as the extra daylight was in the one hemisphere, I imagine it would have been at least as terrifying in the other.

If only the Earth and Moon were affected, I wonder if God used some "natural" occurrence -- like the passing of another large heavenly body -- to bring about the delay in the motion of the Earth and Moon. It almost seems more likely that he just told everything to "freeze" for a day.