Without these 1 billion years, Earth would have 60 hours a day
2023-07-12
The slow and steady extension of the Earth's daytime caused by the Tidal force of the moon has been suspended for more than a billion years. The Astrophysics team of the University of Toronto, Canada, recently published a study in Progress in Science, which showed that from about 2 billion years ago to 600 million years ago, the solar driven atmospheric tides offset the impact of the moon, keeping the Earth's rotation speed stable and the length of the day constant at 19.5 hours. Without this billion year hiatus, the current 24-hour day would have been extended to over 60 hours. From about 2 billion years ago to 600 million years ago, solar driven atmospheric tides offset the impact of the moon, keeping the rotation speed of the earth stable, and the length of the day was constant at 19.5 hours. Image source: Kevin Gill/"Progress in Science" About 4.5 billion years ago, when the moon first formed, the length of the day was less than 10 hours. But since then, the Moon's gravitational pull on Earth has been slowing down the Earth's rotational speed, leading to longer and longer days. Today, it continues to extend at a rate of approximately 1.7 milliseconds per hundred years. The moon slows down the Earth's rotation by pulling the Earth's oceans, generating tidal bulges on both sides of the Earth, namely high and low tides. The gravitational pull of the moon on these bumps, coupled with the friction between tides and the seabed, is like the brakes on our spinning planet. The researchers say that sunlight can also produce atmospheric tides with similar bulges. The gravitational pull of the sun pulls these atmospheric bulges, producing torque on Earth. But it did not slow down the Earth's rotation speed like the moon did, but accelerated it. For most of the Geological history of Earth of the Earth, the intensity of the lunar tides was about 10 times that of the solar tides. Therefore, the speed of Earth's rotation slows down, and the daytime becomes longer. The atmospheric resonance is not synchronized with the Earth's rotation speed. But during the 1 billion year period studied, the atmosphere warmed and resonated for about 10 hours; The Earth's rotation slowed down by the moon, reaching 20 hours. When the atmospheric resonance and the length of the day just become an even number (10 and 20), the atmospheric tide will increase, and the bulge will become larger. The Tidal force of the sun is strong enough to resist the moon tide. Although this event is far away in geological history, its results provide a new perspective for the Climate crisis. Researchers have pointed out that due to the variation of atmospheric resonance with temperature, the current warming atmosphere may have an impact on tidal imbalances, resulting in the length of daylight lengthening faster than other situations. (New News Agency)
Edit:XiaoWanNing Responsible editor:YingLing
Source:Science and Technology Daily
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