Bandung – The Earth rotates on its axis at a very fast rate. However, what would happen if the earth stopped rotating? Does that mean humans will meet doomsday?
Quoted from detikInet, Jacco van Loon, an astronomer from Keele University, answered this question. Launch Space, Monday (27/3/2023) he explained that it is almost impossible to make the Earth stop rotating suddenly. However, there is one thing that can slow down the rotation of the Earth, namely the Moon.
“The motion of the side of the Earth facing the Moon is not perfectly balanced by gravity, and neither is the side of the Earth facing the Moon. This imbalance creates ocean tides, which make the oceans bulge on both sides of the Earth,” said Loon.
As the Earth rotates, these bulges move across the Earth’s surface like waves, pushing up the Earth’s spin. This slows the Earth’s rotation, causing Earth’s day to increase by one second every 50,000 years.
“The only thing that can stop Earth’s spin is if another planet crashes into it. Even if this were to happen, it would most likely change the way Earth rotates, not stop it entirely,” he said.
Let’s say the Earth stops rotating, what happens?
Loon argues that humans will still step on the ground because of Earth’s gravity. In addition, the days on earth will last half a year and so will the nights. It will be hotter during the day and cooler at night. This will also affect the climate on Earth.
The large temperature difference between day and night would cause strong winds, which would move warm air toward the cooler side of the Earth at night. Winds will also blow from warm areas around the equator to cold polar regions. On a rotating Earth, this does not happen because the winds are deflected.
Loon also mentioned several other possibilities, one of which is magnetic field chaos. He also added that the appearance of the night sky is always the same if the Earth stops rotating.
“If the Earth didn’t rotate, the night sky would always show the same constellations, because you would always be looking at space in the same direction,” he said,
This article has been published on detikInet with the title The Big Impact If The Earth Stops Rotating
(yum/yum)
