{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Radio Chatskill","title":"Science Stories with Joe Johnson: Meteorite Strikes, and the Return of Flesh-Eating Flies","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":669,"description":"Our resident science guy Joe Johnson has a fascinating update on three very different science stories: the subtle changes in Earth’s rotation, a rare meteorite impact in Georgia, and the resurgence of the screwworm fly in Central America and Mexico.Earth’s Rotation: Less Than 2 Milliseconds MatterLast week, Radio Catskill explored the changing rate of the Earth’s rotation and the tiny variations in day length. “And we're totally talking like less than 2 milliseconds here. We're not talking a big deal,” Joe clarified. He also corrected a misstatement from the previous report: “I made a mistake. I used the term sidereal day when I was really talking about a solar day. And there's a difference between them.”He explained: “A sidereal day is the Earth's rotation as determined by measuring the position of a distant star or radio source. And that's 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. A solar day is from local noon when the sun hits the highest point in the southern sky to the next solar noon. And that's exactly 24 hours or 86,400 seconds.”The difference arises because “the Earth moves in its orbit about 1° per day. And so to get the sun back into that exact position, we have to then go another… 56 seconds or something like that. And so it's the change in position of the Earth that causes the two measurements to be slightly different from each other.”Joe illustrated the concept with a hands-on experiment: “I told Tim he should do the spinny chair experiment where you spin around on a chair with your legs and arms out and then draw them in and you go a lot faster. It kind of illustrates how a change in mass can change rotation.”Rare Meteorite Strikes a Georgia HomeIn North Georgia near Atlanta, a rare daytime fireball from June 26 was seen and heard by hundreds, leaving a sonic boom captured on dashcams and security cameras. “The next day it was reported that a meteorite fragment had actually struck a house in a little town called McDunna, Georgia in a place called Henry...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/q7XXsnSXT_u4mZLCn3chUorwDmUD_kWiB272D6emB18/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80N2Uy/OGY5MWUwZThkYTEw/NDVkZGM2ZGZkZDIw/ZjliOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}