00:03One day on Earth equals 24 hours, but that wasn't always the case.
00:07Science Alert reports there was once a time on our planet called the Mid-Proterozoic Period,
00:11or the Boring Billion, a time between 1.8 and .8 billion years ago.
00:16At that time, our planet's geochemical processes slowed significantly,
00:20and even Earth's plate tectonics stood nearly still.
00:22Also, a day on Earth slowed down to just 19 hours, and scientists might now finally know why,
00:27and it might be at least in part the Moon's fault.
00:30Earth and the Moon have always had an interesting gravitational dance.
00:33After all, we can thank our planet's only natural satellite for the tides.
00:37But the Moon has also slowly moved away from Earth, stealing some of its rotational speed as it does so.
00:42There are a lot of theories about why Earth's day length changed and when it did so,
00:46with some theories suggesting it flatlined and then slowed at different points in history.
00:50But this new study also took into account the Great Oxidation Event,
00:53or when our planet's oxygen levels spiked and an ozone layer came into being.
00:57During that time, the researchers say our planet's solar atmospheric tides and its oceanic tides would have reached a balance,
01:03which, including the Moon's closer orbit, would have resulted in a constant 19-hour day.
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