Moon Drifting Away: Could Earth Experience 25-Hour Days in the Future?

Moon Drifting Away

Moon Drifting Away: According to the scientists, the length of one day could be increased to 25 hours from 24 hours as the moon is drifting away from the Earth.

As per the research by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, every year the moon moves at a rate of approximately 3.8 centimeters away from the Earth.

This will result in the extension of Earth days to last 25 hours in 200 million years.

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The study also shows that when the moon was closer to Earth around 1.4 billion years ago, at that time the Earth's days were just over in 18 hours. However, now that the moon is getting far away from Earth, the days will get longer here on Earth.

Stephen Meyers who is the Professor of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison added, “As the moon moves away, the Earth is like a spinning figure skater who slows down as they stretch their arms out.”

He also added, “One of our ambitions was to use astrochronology to tell time in the most distant past, to develop very ancient geological time scales.”

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The Moon is currently located about 384,400 km (238,855 miles) away from Earth. It takes around one month i.e. 27.3 days for Earth to make a revolution.

Researchers by studying the geological formations and sediment layers have come to know about the billion years of past between Earth and Moon.

A professor of geophysics at Royal Holloway, University of London, David Waltham said, “The tidal drag on the Earth slows its rotation down and the Moon gains that energy as angular momentum.”

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