The Moon continues to move away from Earth, and soon we may have 25 hours in a day.
The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, at an average length of 3.82 cm every year.
This occurrence is caused by the gravitational interactions between the two celestial bodies.
It Results on Earth’s Day Duration, As the Moon moves away from Earth, the duration of a day on Earth gradually increases.
The process has been slow, but over millions of years, it has a large accumulated effect.
A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison did research to better understand the historical connections between Earth and the Moon.
They focused on how these interaction evolved over billions of years.
Examination of Ancient Rocks, The scientists studied rock formations from roughly 90 million years ago to learn further about Earth’s geological history.
Their study aimed to figure out the differences in Earth’s rotational dynamics resulting from the Moon.
Estimation of The future Day Duration ,The researchers estimate that if the Moon’s current rate of drifting continues, the duration of a day on Earth will increase.
It increases to about 25 hours a day, in approximately over 200 million years.
Astrochronology and Geological Time Scales Establishing accurate geological time scales for Earth’s distant history was one of the research’s objectives.
Perspective on Moon Visibility in the Long term though the Moon is gradually decreasing.
This process is progressive and will not result in the Moon’s sudden disappearance from the night sky.
The results show that the amount of shrinkage on the Moon is currently rather constant.
However, for a variety of reasons, it has varied over geological intervals.
The two most important ones are known to be the speed at which the Earth rotates and the movement of the continents.