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The Moon is a constant in the night sky, but all is not actually as it seems.
It turns out that scientists have discovered the Moon is drifting away from Earth, and it’s changing everything we thought we knew about our planet’s relationship with its only natural satellite.
It’s also having a very real impact on the length of days on our planet – albeit at an incredibly slow rate.
By moving away from Earth over the course of millions of years, the Moon is simultaneously making the length of the average day longer.
A study by a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison focused on rock from a formation aged at 90 million years. By doing so, they were able to analyse the Earth’s interactions with the Moon 1.4 billion years ago.
It turns out that the Moon is moving away from Earth at us at 3.82 centimetres a year. That means that, eventually, it’ll result in Earth days lasting 25 hours in 200 million years time.
The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth and it's beginning to impact us
The Moon is a constant in the night sky, but all is not actually as it seems. It turns out that scientists have discovered the Moon is drifting away from Earth, and it’s changing everything we thought we knew about our planet’s relationship with its only natural satellite. It’s also having a...
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