It was common during the time that I went to school for schools to compete in a variety of sports events. In those days, track events used to be popular. It was possible to have long distance events on the pitch. The competitors would have to run around the pitch several times. Each round was called a lap. Some events required that the competitors complete ten laps, some twenty or twenty-four.
This world we live in, the Earth, is a huge ball which is in an event to complete God-knows-how-many laps around an even bigger, fiery ball called the Sun. If we would let an observer get away from Earth and observe it from an astronomical distance, they would see the action clearly. We are not able to see the action because we are on the ball that is going round. Passengers travelling on a plane hardly notice that the plane is in motion and can walk back and forth in the cabin. It is the outside observers who clearly see that the plane is in motion.
The Earth observer described above would be able to know that the Earth has completed a lap around the Sun. Each lap is what we, the Earth dwellers, call a year. Today we have completed one lap since New Year’s day last year. It takes us three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter (365¼) days to complete a lap. The quarter cannot and should not be thrown away for to do so would result in serious misalignment of seasons over a number of years. You do not need to be proficient in rocket Mathematics to appreciate that a quarter times four (¼ x 4) is equal to one. The quarter days, therefore, accumulate to an extra day every four years. That is the reason why we have what is known as a leap year after every four years. In a normal year, February has 28 days but in a leap year it has 29. It is not for no reason that we have leap years. Next year (2024) will be a leap year.
We take it for granted that a year is three hundred and sixty-five days long. Our lake, Lake Malawi, is often called the calendar lake because it is approximately 365 miles long (number of days in a year) and on average 52 miles wide (number of weeks in a year). If we relocated to a different world, the length of a year would be very different, in some cases wildly so.
If you relocated to distant world called Pluto, for example, you would have to get used to living your entire life without completing year. This sounds perplexing, doesn’t it? Before I explain it, let me mention that many people have known Pluto as the ninth planet in the Solar System. Well, it is not a Planet anymore; it is what is known as dwarf Planet. Why there has been this change is a story for another day. Today’s story is that Pluto completes its revolution around the Sun after 248 Earth years. A person would be born and die after a full life span before one year is completed on Pluto. Thank God we do not live there!
If you think Pluto’s story is outlandish in the extreme, wait until we get closer to home. We, Earthlings, have two planetary neighbours: Venus and Mars. Venus is slightly closer to the Sun than us and Mars slightly further. I have featured Mars a number of times before. Today, we will look at Venus. Earth and Venus are so similar to each other in size that they were regarded as twin planets once upon a time. But size is the only similarity between the two worlds. In every other aspect, the two planets different as day is from night.
Because of the abundance of carbon dioxide in the Venusian atmosphere, the planets traps heat like a super greenhouse. As a result, Venus has the hottest surface of all planets, averaging 460°C. Tin or lead would instantly melt if it was dropped on Venus. If you had enough protection against heat, air pressure and other hazards on Venus and managed to land there, you would be on a very crazy world indeed. Apart from the fact that the Sun would rise in the West and set in the East, the length of your day on Venus would be equivalent to 243 Earth days and your year to 225 Earth days. Yes, a day on Venus is longer than a year. One Venus you would say “Happy New Year” more often than you would say “Good morning”.