Khaberni - The idea of a 25-hour day is no longer just a quirky thought or an exaggerated headline to grab attention, but it is also not a reality that is close to happening as the title might suggest. The scientific truth is more serene and complex, indicating that the Earth is indeed slowing its rotation, but this change occurs over an immense timeframe measured in millions of years, not days or upcoming centuries. Nonetheless, what's new in the story is that this slowdown is no longer linked to the moon alone as previously believed, but climate change now plays a direct role in it.
Since the Earth's formation about 4.5 billion years ago, the moon has been the primary factor affecting its rotational speed. The moon's gravity causes the tides in the oceans, and as the water moves continuously and rubs against the seabed, there is a gradual loss of the Earth's rotational energy. This effect has caused the day to lengthen very slowly over time, but at very small rates that are imperceptible in daily life. According to astronomical calculations, days in the past were much shorter than they are now, and have gradually increased to about 24 hours.
However, what piques scientists' interest today is the emergence of a new factor participating in this process: climate change. With global temperature rises, massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica began melting at accelerated rates. This melting not only means a rise in sea levels but also a massive redistribution of mass on the planet's surface. The resulting waters do not stay at the poles but move towards the equatorial oceans, leading to a change in mass distribution around the Earth.
This process is physically similar to a person spinning on a swivel chair: when the mass is concentrated in the center, the rotation is faster, but when the mass extends to the edges, the rotation slows down. Similarly, the water moving from the poles towards the equator causes a very slight slowdown in the Earth's rotation. Recent studies indicate that this effect adds a fraction of a millisecond to the length of the day every century, a figure that seems small but is measurable with high precision.
Research based on satellite data has shown that this effect was not significant in the past, but has increased over recent decades. Between 2000 and 2018, the impact of ice melting and groundwater depletion on Earth's rotation has risen to a level that is becoming comparable to the moon's impact. With the continued emission of greenhouse gases, scientists expect this effect to increase during the current century, meaning that human activity has become a geological factor affecting the movement of the planet itself.
Despite the exciting idea of a "25-hour day," it is temporally so far away that it will not be relevant to contemporary humans. Even with the ongoing slowdown, reaching a full one-hour increase in the length of the day would require hundreds of millions of years. However, more importantly than the figure itself is understanding that the Earth is not a static system, but a dynamic entity affected by what happens on its surface and inside it, according to "dailygalaxy".
The matter does not stop at the length of the day only, but also extends to the movement of the Earth's axis. The mass redistribution resulting from the melting of ice and groundwater leads to a slight change in the tilt of the rotation axis, a phenomenon known as "polar motion". These changes are not directly felt by humanity but are measured with precision through modern monitoring systems.
