A length of days on earth, determined by the rotation of the planet, is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds – different from what happened billions years ago, when days were significantly shorter and gradually lengthened due to the influence of Moon.
But new research suggests that this stretching process has stopped at least once.
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Let's explain: the gravitational interactions between the Earth and the Moon are responsible for the gradual removal of our satellite and the deceleration of the earth's rotation, which results in days longer.
It is still not known for sure when the days will last 25 hours, and this question becomes even more complex with the recent discovery published in the journal “Nature Geoscience”.
Through the analysis of the Milankovitch cycles, related to the Earth's orbit, the researchers observed a period in which the days stopped being elongate.” Two Milankovitch cycles, called precession and obliquity, are linked to the wobble and tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation in the space. The faster rotation of the early Earth can be detected in shorter precession and obliquity cycles in the past," explained Uwe Kirscher, author of the study.
This phenomenon occurred when the days were approximately 19 hours long, between one and two billion years ago, before the explosion of multicellular life, and scientists believe it may be related to this period specific.
Although its tides are currently weak, the Sun also exerts its share of influence on the Earth's atmosphere, but, unlike the Moon, which affects the tides and slows down the rotational movement, the star partially accelerates the planet. However, when the Moon was closer, its gravitational pull may have been comparable to that of the Sun.
At that time, the Earth's atmosphere was composed of a greater amount of ozone compared to the oxygen, and solar tides were mainly driven by the interaction of light with ozone and water vapour.
This scenario caused the lengthening of days to stop only during the period of atmospheric oxidation and increased O₂ levels. This phenomenon was the main stimulus for the emergence of animal life on the planet.
