Note: For simplicity's sake, these are all sidereal days, and "day" refers to an Earth day.
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Therefore, there is one fewer solar day per year than there are sidereal days. This makes a sidereal day approximately times the length of the 24-hour solar day, giving approximately 23 h 56 min 4.1 s (86,164.1 s).
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Recently (1999–2005) the average annual length of the mean solar day in excess of 86400 SI seconds has varied between 0.3 ms and 1 ms, which must be added to both the stellar and sidereal days given in mean solar time above to obtain their lengths in SI seconds.
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Michael E. Bakich, The Cambridge planetary handbook, p.50. This is obtained by dividing Earth's equatorial circumference by . However, the use of the solar day is incorrect; it must be the sidereal day, so the corresponding time unit must be a sidereal hour. This is confirmed by multiplying by the number of sidereal days in one mean solar day, , which yields the equatorial speed in mean solar hours given above of .
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For a rigid Earth which is an oblate spheroid to a good approximation, the figure axis F would be its geometric axis defined by the geographic north and south pole, and identical with the axis of its polar moment of inertia. The Euler period of free nutation is (1) τE = 1/νE = A/(C − A) sidereal days ≈ 307 sidereal days ≈ 0.84 sidereal years νE = 1.19 is the normalized Euler frequency (in units of reciprocal years), C = 8.04 × 1037 kg m2 is the polar moment of inertia of the Earth, A is its mean equatorial moment of inertia, and C - A = 2.61 × 1035 kg m2. The observed angle between the figure axis of the Earth F and its angular momentum M is a few hundred milliarcseconds (mas). This rotation can be interpreted as a linear displacement of either geographical pole amounting to several meters on the surface of the Earth: 100 mas subtends an arc length of 3.082 m, when converted to radians and multiplied by the Earth's polar radius (6,356,752.3 m).
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Using the geometric axis as the primary axis of a new body-fixed coordinate system, one arrives at the Euler equation of a gyroscope describing the apparent motion of the rotation axis about the geometric axis of the Earth. This is the so-called polar motion. Observations show that the figure axis exhibits an annual wobble forced by surface mass displacement via atmospheric and/or ocean dynamics, while the free nutation is much larger than the Euler period and of the order of 435 to 445 sidereal days. This observed free nutation is called Chandler wobble.
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This is a result of the Earth turning 1 additional rotation, relative to the celestial reference frame, as it orbits the Sun (so 366.25 rotations/y). The mean solar day in SI seconds is available from the IERS for the periods IERS Excess of the duration of the day to 86,400s … since 1623 Graph at end. and . Recently (1999–2010) the average annual length of the mean solar day in excess of has varied between and , which must be added to both the stellar and sidereal days given in mean solar time above to obtain their lengths in SI seconds (see Fluctuations in the length of day).
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The physical properties of this object were measured by an international team of astronomers led by Dr. Steven J. Ostro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using a radar telescope in California and optical telescopes in the Czech Republic, Hawaii, Arizona and California. ' is characterized as a potentially metallic X-type asteroid. Optical and radar observations indicate that it is a water- rich object. From light curve photometry in 1998, the object is measured to have a rotation period of only 10.7 minutes, which was considered to be one of the shortest sidereal days of any known Solar System object at the time; most asteroids with established rotational rates have periods measured in hours.
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The polar orbit ranged between over Venus. The periapsis was located almost above the North pole (80° North latitude), and it took 24 hours for the spacecraft to travel around the planet. Venus Express studied the Venusian atmosphere and clouds in detail, the plasma environment and the surface characteristics of Venus from orbit. It also made global maps of the Venusian surface temperatures. Its nominal mission was originally planned to last for 500 Earth days (approximately two Venusian sidereal days), but the mission was extended five times: first on 28 February 2007 until early May 2009; then on 4 February 2009 until 31 December 2009; and then on 7 October 2009 until 31 December 2012. On 22 November 2010, the mission was extended to 2014.
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