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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How lasers detect day-length changes of a few milliseconds

Device decades in the making senses very small alterations in Earth’s rotation.
Earth day and night, illustration.

The length of a day is not constant but can be measured by a new laser-based device. Credit: Detlev Van Ravenswaay/SPL

Researchers have built a device that can sense minute changes in the rotation of Earth, allowing the instrument to measure changes in the length of the day as small as a few milliseconds over four months1.

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Nature 621, 661 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02919-5

References

  1. Schreiber, K. U., Kodet, J., Hugentobler, U., Klügel, T. & Wells, J.-P. R. Nature Photon. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01286-x (2023).

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