What is the length of a year?
Q: What is the length of a year?
A: A year is approximately 365 days long, except in a leap year which has 366 days.
Q: How does the Gregorian calendar measure the length of a year?
A: The Gregorian calendar is based on a tropical year of 365.2425 days, which is the time it takes for the Sun to return to the same position in its cycle of seasons as seen from Earth.
Q: What is a lunar year?
A: A lunar year is based on the moon and usually consists of 12 lunar months (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes each) or 354 days long.
Q: What type of measurement do astronomers use to measure the length of a year?
A: Astronomers use sidereal years, anomalistic years and eclipse years to measure the length of a year. Sidereal years measure when a selected fixed star is highest in the night sky; anomalistic years measure when Earth gets closest to the sun; and eclipse years are when it's possible for sun, Earth and moon to be in line and eclipses can happen.
Q: What unit of time equal to one million years?
A: Ma (for meganum) is equal to one million years.
Q: Is there an intuitively simple term used for "million years ago"?
A: Yes, "mya" for "million years ago" is generally preferred as being more intuitively simple for non-technical readers.
Q: Is there a specific calendar provided for liturgical purposes?
A: Yes, there is a specific calendar provided for liturgical purposes.
