Arabia Weather - There is little time left until we welcome the new year, and in these last days, engineer Majid Abu Zahira, President of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, shed light on an exciting surprise regarding the New Year. Abu Zahira announced enthusiastically that the new year will be a “leap,” as he described it. Pointing out that the month of February will have its 29th day , an event that is repeated every 4 years , he explained that this absurd calendar keeps the seasons of the year in sync with the Earth’s orbital position, which adds to our daily lives a touch of magic and astronomical details.
Abu Zahra confirmed that the new year, 2024, will be made up of 366 days instead of 365 days , as he explained that the Earth’s revolution around the sun does not take exactly 365 days, but rather slightly longer to be about 365.25 days . Because of that, the calendar that is based on 365 A day gradually loses sync with the seasons, and for balance, an extra day is added every 4 years.
Abu Zahra explained that Gregorian years are divided into simple years (365 days) and leap years (366 days). He added that it is possible to determine whether a particular year is a leap year or not by dividing the year by 4, where if the result is an integer without... As a fraction, it is a leap year, and for example, dividing 2024 by 4 equals 506, which means that the year 2024 is a leap year.
The head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Majed Abu Zahra, explained that the phenomenon of the leap year is based on the Earth’s rotation around the sun, as the Earth exceeds a distance of approximately 150 million kilometers during its journey around the sun, and the Earth moves at a speed of 108,000 kilometers per hour, covering a distance of 940 million kilometers in a period of time. A time period of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, known as the solar year.
These fractions are usually ignored in astronomical calculations, and when the fourth year comes, an additional day is added to achieve natural balance, and this day is added to the month of February, which thus becomes 29 days instead of 28; Thus, the total number of days in the year becomes 366. The month of February was chosen because of its shortness, as it consists of 28 days, which makes adding a day to it have little effect. According to astronomical calculations, the next leap year will be in 2028.
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Sources:
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