Right now you are moving at up to about 1,670 km/h and you feel nothing. What would happen if the ground stopped and the air didn't? A science-first thought experiment on supersonic winds, oceans running to the poles and a day that lasts a year, plus Venus, the planet that barely spins, and why Earth just had its shortest day ever measured.

🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Ac2pRp4qYvJ2C7NLenHr3

▶ Watch the video, with every source and image credit: https://youtu.be/OLuRVapNfkw

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Chapters

0:00 You're moving faster than sound

0:23 This can't happen (but what if?)

0:47 How we know Earth spins

1:24 The sudden stop

2:05 Two oceans, one continent

2:49 A day that lasts a year

3:21 Weather without a spin

3:57 Venus, the planet that barely spins

4:24 Is Earth slowing down?

5:06 The ride

A thought experiment: Earth cannot suddenly stop spinning (the narration says so at 0:23).

Sources

• NASA Earth fact sheet: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html

• Fraczek 2010, Esri ArcUser (GIS model of a non-spinning Earth): https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcuser/what-would-happen-if-earth-stopped-spinning

• NASA Venus fact sheet: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html

• Stephenson et al. 2016, Proc. R. Soc. A (length of day): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5247521/

• NASA, tidal locking: https://science.nasa.gov/moon/tidal-locking/

Labels: in the video every claim carries an on-screen label (FACT, THEORY, ESTIMATE, HYPOTHESIS, SPECULATION); in this audio edition the narration says out loud when something is an estimate or a thought experiment.

Narration: synthetic voice. Music: original.

#space #astronomy #science #eightminutesold