By trapping huge amounts of water on land, big dams built by humans have slightly changed how Earth spins and where its poles ...

If you’re the kind of person who gets a lot done, you’re grateful for every one of the 86,400 seconds that make up a day. On July 9, however, as well as on July 22, and August 5, you won’t get your ...

Earth’s spin is not as steady as it looks. As ice melts and groundwater is pumped from deep aquifers to the surface, the ...

A globe was the first thing I ever bought with my own money. I was maybe 5 years old, and I was really excited to take it home. As I quickly discovered, you can spin it in the direction that the earth ...

Like you, I'm given to wondering about "what ifs" to better understand the assumptions we make about the world. One of my favorites is what if the Earth stopped rotating? Let's just say things would ...

King Tides, formally known as Perigean-Spring Tides, are exceptionally high tides. These usually occur about three times a ...

We don’t often think about gravity, the invisible force that anchors us to Earth, as it always seems constant and dependable. However, it will slightly vary, sometimes by enough to make you weigh ...

This temporal lag is a direct consequence of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. The rule is simple: the weaker ...

How do you explore the interior of a planet without ever touching down on it? Start by watching the way the planet spins, then measure how your spacecraft orbits it — very, very carefully. This is ...

Earth's rotation is subtly accelerating, and scientists are intently tracking the trend. Usually, our planet takes 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, to finish one complete spin. However, on July 9, 2025, ...