OtterKnow Kids EncyclopediaEarth has been spinning since it was born over four billion years ago! When our planet first formed from a giant cloud of gas and dust, it started to spin. And it has never stopped since! Earth’s spinning is what gives us day and night.
Earth spins around an imaginary line that goes from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line is called its axis. Earth makes one full spin every 24 hours. As it spins, different parts of the planet face the Sun, giving us daytime on one side and nighttime on the other.
- Earth is actually spinning a tiny bit slower every year, but you would never notice it.
- Nothing in space is pushing against Earth to slow it down, so it just keeps spinning and spinning.
- The Moon’s gravity gently tugs on Earth and makes it slow down by about two seconds every 100,000 years!
