Lunar day around the Sun at the same time, the Moon must travel further to return to the same phase. On average, this synodic period lasts 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds. This is the mean figure since the speed of the Earth–Moon system around the Sun varies slightly during a year due to the eccentricity of its elliptical orbit, variances in orbital velocity, and a number of other periodic and evolving variations about its observed, relative, mean values, which are influenced by the gravitational perturbations of the Sun and other bodies in the Solar System. As a result,
Year calculated for 2000, and differences in year lengths, compared to 2000, are given for past and future years. In the tables a day is 86,400 SI seconds long. An average Gregorian year is 365.2425 days (52.1775 weeks, hours, minutes or seconds). For this calendar, a common year is 365 days ( hours, minutes or seconds), and a leap year is 366 days ( hours, minutes or seconds). The 400-year cycle of the Gregorian calendar has days and hence exactly weeks. The Great Year, or equinoctial cycle, corresponds to a complete revolution of the equinoxes around the ecliptic. Its length is