Earth changes its spin, baffles scientists

[bejohnson]

Earth changes its spin, baffles scientists


BOULDER, Colorado (AP) --In a phenomenon that has scientists puzzled, the Earth is right on schedule for a fifth straight year.

Experts agree that the rate at which the Earth travels through space has slowed ever so slightly for millennia. To make the world's official time agree with where the Earth actually is in space, scientists in 1972 started adding an extra "leap second" on the last day of the year.

For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind.

At the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder, spokesman Fred McGehan said most scientists agree the Earth's orbit around the sun has been gradually slowing for millennia. But he said they don't have a good explanation for why it's suddenly on schedule.

Possible explanations include the tides, weather and changes in the Earth's core, he said.

The leap second was an unexpected consequence of the 1955 invention of the atomic clock, which use the electromagnetic radiation emanated by Cesium atoms to measure time. It is extremely reliable.

Atomic-based Coordinated Universal Time was implemented in 1972, superseding the astronomically determined Greenwich Mean Time.

Leap seconds can be a big deal, affecting everything from communication, navigation and air traffic control systems to the computers that link global financial markets.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.

Sometimes I think we do not know as much about our planet as we think we do. I believe Mother Nature is smarter than all of us.

[Tivon]

The problem with humans is that we think along a limited spectrum. We are like super computers with only 2Mb of memory. Are first thought is to find a formula, no matter how complex, to arrive at a predictable outcome every time. And the only reason we do this is because we can’t possibly calculate every probability in real-time.

[SpaceOdyssey]

too bad i cant live that long to see wha will become of earth in the future, cos it will take trilions of years.

[blpeterson]

Originally posted by SpaceOdyssey
too bad i cant live that long to see wha will become of earth in the future, cos it will take trilions of years.

Actually the Sun should become a white dwarf in about 4.5 billion years. I think man will be long gone by then.:)

[Xilant]

I was watching a program on discovery channel a few months ago. The topic was something like "How long did it take for man to evolve". If you took a clock and the earth's birth at 0:00 (each hour being 1 billion years.) the earth's age is at 4.5 hours (4.5billion years old). Considering the evolutions and all the other stuff. You could say it took, from the time of the earth's birth and evolution of the tiny organisms in the ocean which evoluted into fish then reptiles then mammels and so on... it took about 4.5 billions years to evovle into mankind. Now if you think about another 4.5billions years.... We're problably going to be aliens flying in space probing people in other worlds.

They were also talking about the universe and how much it grows. The universe is about 50 billion light years across. (Speed of light is 299 792 458 meters per second. Which is 299 792, 458 km per second. Which is 1 079 252 849 km per hour.) So imagine traveling that fast for 50 billion years... That's pretty damn wide.

[bejohnson]

Originally posted by Xilant
I was watching a program on discovery channel a few months ago. The topic was something like "How long did it take for man to evolve". If you took a clock and the earth's birth at 0:00 (each hour being 1 billion years.) the earth's age is at 4.5 hours (4.5billion years old). Considering the evolutions and all the other stuff. You could say it took, from the time of the earth's birth and evolution of the tiny organisms in the ocean which evoluted into fish then reptiles then mammels and so on... it took about 4.5 billions years to evovle into mankind. Now if you think about another 4.5billions years.... We're problably going to be aliens flying in space probing people in other worlds.

They were also talking about the universe and how much it grows. The universe is about 50 billion light years across. (Speed of light is 299 792 458 meters per second. Which is 299 792, 458 km per second. Which is 1 079 252 849 km per hour.) So imagine traveling that fast for 50 billion years... That's pretty damn wide.

Actually the age of the universe (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/map_discovery_030211.html) has just been pegged at 13.7 billion ±200 million years. So if you subscribe to the "Big Bang" theory that says the universe began as a point of singularity the universe should be a sphere no larger than 27.4 billion light years in diameter assuming that the explosion material traveled at the speed of light. Since the material probably traveled at a fraction of the speed of light then the universe should be much smaller than 27.4 billion light years. Einstein's theory of relativity states that nothing can travel faster than light, if Einstein is correct then the universe is smaller than the projections.

Now if the "Big Bang" theory or Einstein is incorrect then the size of the universe is beyond our capability to calculate or fathom. The mapping of the background radiation and the discovery of 'Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy" tend to corroborate the 'Big Bang" theory. Could Einstein be wrong about the speed of light? Who knows, there may be something that is akin to "Warp" speed? We have so much to learn. If the universe is of a finite size, what is beyond the universe?



A Year of Resolving Cosmology (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031231.html) (Check out all the links from this link, There's a lot of great info to be found.)
Credit: WMAP Science Team, NASA

This year, humanity learned that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Before this year, the universe's age was thought to be about 13 billion years, but really only constrained to be between about 12 billion and 15 billion years old. The difference was made, primarily, by a small satellite named the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) that had been collecting data in an unusual Earth orbit. Pictured above is a sky map of the enabling data -- the complete cosmic microwave background divided into two hemispheres, in detail never before resolved, as recorded by the WMAP's first data release. Besides universe age, new data and analyses of the spots on the cosmic microwave background bolstered existing indications that the universe is composed predominantly of a strange and mysterious type of dark energy (73 percent). The remaining matter is only about 4 percent in familiar atoms, with the remaining 23 percent in a somewhat mysterious type of dark matter. During the year, much cosmological research shifted from trying to find the parameters that define our universe to trying to use these parameters as a tool for understanding details of how our universe evolved.

[residentevil3]

When ifirst read the title of the thread i was thinking hmm did the earth just change directions or something.


Iv been looking for an explantion to why the sun is so freaking big and bright, and why this winter we have 50-70f temps, we always have like 30-40f temps,


The last 3-4 years here in virginia have been very puzzling and im not the only one who says this i talk to strangers sometimes and they noticed the same thing.

Maybe its just global warming or maybe its something else.


Btw where do you get all this news from.

[splashtech]

What do you mean? What's changed?

[residentevil3]

The earth is now spinning faster basicly. Spinning like it should.

[splashtech]

Nah.... I meant about the weather.... you mentioned it above.

The last 3-4 years here in virginia have been very puzzling and im not the only one who says this i talk to strangers sometimes and they noticed the same thing.

what did you mean by puzzling?

[residentevil3]

Puzzling, like the sun hasnt been this birhgt in my 15 years here, and its never been this warm in winter for years straight.

[Xilant]

If the theory is correct and that the universe is 27.4 billion light years in diameter...

I can't help but think, is there something like a wall or what's on the other side...

[bejohnson]

Originally posted by residentevil3
Btw where do you get all this news from.

I read something like 20-30 web sites for news and info everyday. I also subscribe to several science news groups and I read a couple of newspapers everyday not including the Wall Street Journal. If I read something of interest on the web, I grab it. If I read something in print then I reaserch the web and find it there. I always try to read at least three different accounts of any story so I can get a better picture of what really is happening. This is especially true of current events and headline stories. I read the conservative and the liberal sides and judge for myself.

[XxFaeryOnFirexX]

Originally posted by blpeterson
Actually the Sun should become a white dwarf in about 4.5 billion years. I think man will be long gone by then.:)

i read it was supposed to expand to become a red giant, consume the first 4 planets and then burn out.

[bejohnson]

Originally posted by XxFaeryOnFirexX
i read it was supposed to expand to become a red giant, consume the first 4 planets and then burn out.

Actually you and she are both right. The final stage is actually a black dwarf. Click Here (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/dwarfs.html) for a full description.

[neutralz]

hehe. maybe some meteors falling on earth resulted in changes in mass.


f = mrw (where w is omega) zZzz
darn i m forgetting my physics