{"id":63233,"date":"2025-04-30T15:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63233\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:19:10","slug":"nasa-confirmed-massive-man-made-project-is-slowing-down-the-earths-rotation-due-to-its-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63233\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA confirmed massive man-made project is slowing down the Earth’s rotation due to its size"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever felt like there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done?<\/p>\n

Well, you’re in luck as social media users over on Reddit<\/a> have been discussing in recent days. And NASA<\/a> is at the heart of it.<\/p>\n

Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has stated that China’s Three Gorges Dam has actually increased the length of the day.<\/p>\n

The Three Gorges Dam is located on the Yangtze River in China\u2019s<\/a> Hubei province. Completed in 2012, the dam is 2,335 meters long and 185 meters high.<\/p>\n

It holds about 40 cubic kilometres of water, which is roughly equal to 10 trillion gallons. This water is stored at a height of 175 meters above sea level, giving it some serious weight and energy.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Three Gorges Dam is slowing the earth’s rotation slightly (VCG\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

NASA has recently confirmed that the dam, which happens to be the world\u2019s largest hydroelectric power station, has caused a small but measurable change to Earth\u2019s rotation, resulting in our days being increased in length by 0.06 microseconds.<\/p>\n

“For reference, this amounts to a bit more than 3 days over the entire age of the universe,” Dr. Chao explains.<\/p>\n

This change comes from the massive volume of water stored in the dam\u2019s reservoir, which shifts the planet\u2019s mass and slightly slows its spin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to NASA scientists<\/a>, the huge amount of water held back by the dam has shifted the distribution of Earth\u2019s mass. This change has increased the planet\u2019s moment of inertia, similar to how a figure skater slows their spin by stretching out their arms.<\/p>\n

Dr. Chao explained: \u201cAny time you shift mass around, you change the Earth\u2019s rotation. The effect is very small, but measurable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their study found that the dam\u2019s reservoir has lengthened the Earth\u2019s day by 0.06 microseconds and shifted the planet\u2019s axis by about 2 centimeters.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Three Gorges Dam produces the equivalent energy of 15 nuclear reactors (Ryan Pyle\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

These changes are tiny, but modern instruments can detect them.<\/p>\n

Despite the concerns, the dam remains a key part of China\u2019s energy strategy. It has a capacity of 22,500 megawatts and produces as much power as 15 nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n

It helps reduce the use of coal and cuts carbon emissions, making it a vital renewable energy source.<\/p>\n

So, if like me you’re wondering what you can do with your additional 0.06 seconds, don’t worry, I’ve Googled<\/a> it for you. In 0.06 seconds, you can identify a smell, and your dog can determine the direction of a sound. But that’s about it, sorry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever felt like there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done? Well,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32616,32617,3888,32618,874,70,32615,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-63233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-benjamin-fong-chao","9":"tag-earths-rotation","10":"tag-goddard-space-flight-center","11":"tag-hydroelectric-power-station","12":"tag-nasa","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-three-gorges-dam","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114427590544386413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}