Earth’s speed is slowing down, day length may increase in the future

According to the common understanding of geography, the Earth takes 24 hours to rotate once around its axis. But modern scientific analysis says that there is no guarantee that this period will remain the same forever. Due to the influence of the Moon, the only natural satellite of the Earth in space, the Earth’s rotation speed is gradually decreasing. Scientists fear that as a result, the length of the day may reach 25 hours in the future instead of 24 hours.

After observing the Earth’s rotation for a long time, researchers have found that the main reason for this slowdown is the gravitational pull of the Moon. The regular tides that are created in the Earth’s oceans due to the Moon’s attraction are not limited to the fluctuation of water volume; rather, it acts as a kind of resistance force on the Earth’s rotation.

When the huge volume of water in the ocean swells and then moves back again due to the Moon’s pull, the water creates intense friction with the seabed. Due to this friction, the speed of the Earth’s rotation around its axis is decreasing, albeit very slightly, every year. At the same time, as a result of the exchange of energy in this process, the Moon is also gradually moving further away from the Earth.

Although this change does not have much impact on the daily lives of ordinary people, it is very important to space scientists. They regularly calculate the subtle differences in the speed of Earth’s rotation relative to the Sun and distant stars.

To deal with this slight time difference, ‘leap seconds’ are occasionally added to modern timekeeping systems. Various international organizations, including the US Naval Observatory, regularly check the consistency of this time.

Scientists also say that a day on Earth was much shorter than it is today, millions of years ago. If the Earth’s rotation continues to slow down like this, then a major change in the calculation of time will become inevitable in the future. Then a day will no longer be limited to 24 hours.

Perhaps, future human civilization will have to adapt to a time system where a day will be 25 hours long. This slow change in the Earth’s speed is not a sudden event; rather, it is part of the long-term natural evolution of the universe.