Scientists Claim Only a Billion-Year ‘Pause’ Can Prevent 60-Hour Days

The length of a day on Earth is gradually increasing. Over millions of years, the moon’s tidal pull on our oceans slows down our planet’s rotation, resulting in a day that is projected to be 25 hours long in about 200 million years.

However, a recent study published in the journal Science Advances reveals that Earth’s day would already be 60 hours long if not for a mysterious pause that occurred approximately 600 million years ago.

Currently, Earth is spinning slightly faster than it should be, but as the moon continues to move away from us at a rate of 3.8 cm per year, the length of a day gradually increases by about 1.7 milliseconds each century.

The research indicates that for 1.4 billion years, Earth maintained a steady rotation with a day lasting 19.5 hours. When the moon initially formed 4.5 billion years ago and was much closer to Earth, a day only lasted about 10 hours.

The scientists attribute this pause to a natural resonance between the moon’s effect on Earth’s rotation and the tidal influence of the sun. Sunlight generates thermal tides in Earth’s atmosphere, which create bulges that result in friction and slow down Earth’s rotation. However, sunlight also produces atmospheric tides with similar bulges that speed up Earth’s spin due to the sun’s gravity.

Norman Murray, a theoretical astrophysicist from the University of Toronto’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), explains, “It’s like pushing a child on a swing. If your push and the period of the swing are out of sync, it’s not going to go very high. But, if they’re in sync, and you’re pushing just as the swing stops at one end of its travel, the push will add to the momentum of the swing and it will go further and higher.”

The researchers propose that billions of years ago, the natural resonance was generated by a warmer atmosphere amplifying the sun’s atmospheric tide.

Interestingly, the imbalance caused by Earth’s current warming temperature, which contributes to global warming, is moving the planet away from its atmospheric resonance. Murray explains, “As we increase Earth’s temperature with global warming, we’re also making the resonant frequency move higher—we’re moving our atmosphere farther away from resonance. As a result, there’s less torque from the sun, and therefore, the length of the day is going to increase sooner than it would otherwise.”

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.