Length of day facts for kids
The length of the day is how long a day is. On Earth, it is 24 hours long. There are other planets with different types of day.
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Length of the day on other planets
This uses Earth time.
- Mercury - about 60 days
- Venus - 243 days
- Earth - 1 day
- Mars - about 1 day, 0.6 hours
- Jupiter - 9 hours
- Saturn - about 10 hours
- Uranus - about 13 hours
- Neptune - about 15 hours
Increasing day length on Earth
The Earth is constantly losing angular velocity and rotational energy through a process called tidal acceleration, which leads to a slow lengthening of the day. Tidal acceleration is an effect of the tidal forces between an orbiting natural satellite (e.g. the Moon), and the primary planet that it orbits (e.g. Earth).
A century ago, the average day was about 1.7 milliseconds shorter than today. In the late Neoproterozoic about 620 million years ago a day had only about 21.9±0.4 hours.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Sunrise in Brisbane Water National Park, Australia
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Earth daylight on the June solstice
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Earth daylight on the December solstice
See also
In Spanish: Día (contrapuesto a noche) para niños
