Human engineering appears to have moved the planet, literally. According to new research published this month, the global boom in dam construction over the past two centuries has caused measurable ...

Every second, the Earth spins at an incredible speed, completing a full rotation in just 24 hours. While this may seem ...

Earth’s rotation is the continuous spinning of the planet around its axis, an imaginary line running from the North Pole to the South Pole. One full rotation takes about 24 hours, creating the cycle ...

Earth rotates once in about 24 hours with respect to the Sun, but once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds with respect to other distant stars. Scientists call this difference crucial to ...

Last Word is New Scientist’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To ...