Space & Astronomy

Earth to see 25-hour days as rotation slows

By T.K. Randall
December 7, 2016 ·  10 comments

The number of hours in a day is not actually constant. Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 Derek Key It might not be obvious, but the length of a single day has been steadily growing over time.

As the Earth's rotation gradually slows down, the amount of time it takes to complete a single rotation increases. Over the last 2,700 years this equates to around 2 milliseconds per century.

In a recent study, researchers from Durham University and the UK's Nautical Almanac Office decided to calculate how long it would take for the length of a day to increase by one hour.By analyzing historical accounts of eclipses and other celestial events, they worked out that it will take a whopping 200 million years for the rotation to slow enough to give us a 25-hour day.

"It's a very slow process," said study co-author Leslie Morrison.

"These estimates are approximate, because the geophysical forces operating on the Earth's rotation will not necessarily be constant over such a long period of time."

Source: The Guardian | Comments (10)

Tags: Hour, Day, Earth, Orbit