If the history of our planet had turned out differently, the Earth’s day could have lasted as long as 60 hours

Recent research by scientists at the University of Toronto suggests that a day on Earth could be 60 hours long instead of our usual 24. Some might rejoice at the possibility of having more time in a day – but, in fact, the world and humanity would be very different with such a long day. The 24-hour day is a credit to the opposition between the Moon and the Sun.

Only at first glance, the twenty-four hours seem to be a stable value. In fact, their duration varied from 10 hours during the formation of the Moon to 23.5 hours at the end of the dinosaur era. It is generally accepted that a day increases by about 1.8 milliseconds per 100 years. If this rate had been historically maintained, the length of the day would now reach a fantastic 60 hours. However, researchers have put forward a theory to explain why this has never happened.

The moon tends to move farther away from Earth, and its gravitational force affects our planet, slowing its rotation and making the day longer. The Moon’s gravitational influence is manifested in Earth’s tides. The Sun has a similar influence on the Earth. In this case, our luminary tends to accelerate the rotation of the planet. But the strength of its influence is about 10 times weaker than the influence of the Moon. About 2.2 billion years ago, these influences began to offset each other. This continued for 1.6 billion years.

Today, however, global warming can affect the length of the day. An increase in the planet’s temperature also raises its resonant frequency. Because of this, the solar momentum decreases and the duration of the day, respectively, becomes longer.

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