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Why spring is getting a little bit shorter every year

Evan Bartlett (@ev_bartlettMar 21, 2015 The vernal equinox on Friday marked the first day of spring in 2015, but thanks to a centuries long trend, this year's will be about 30 seconds shorter than the last. The vernal equinox marks the halfway point between the winter and summer solstices - the point at which the Earth's axis is neither tilting towards the Sun nor away from it. According to Live Science, the reason spring is getting shorter is because the Earth's axis wobbles in a process called precession. Over thousands of years, this process becomes more pronounced and by the year 8680 spring will be at its shortest - 88.5 days compared to this year's 92.76 - after which it will start to lengthen again. Fortunately, as Gavin Schmidt, the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, explained to Live Science: "It's not something that anyone is going to notice unless you're an astronomer or a palaeoclimatologist." The other bonus is that each summer is getting longer and longer (albeit by only 30 seconds. But hey, we're willing to take what we can get). More: Spring must be in the air - John Inverdale with another on-air shockerKeep reading...Show less

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