4% dip in Earth's gravitational field makes today SEND DAY

Planetary alignment only happens every 41 thousand years

In exciting news for the climbing world, a rare planetary alignment in the Solar System means that the Earth's gravitational field will be approximately 4% weaker for a few short hours today. The effect, due to a phenomenon known as the Copernical Linearity, was first predicted by ancient astronomers including Nicolaus Copernicus in 1503, but only occurs about once in every 41 thousand years, making today the first time this alignment has occurred in modern history. In this rare situation the combined gravitational pull of the external planets combats the Earth's usual gravitational force on that side of the planet for a brief part of the Earth's daily rotation. Today should give scientists their first chance to put theory to the test, with the effect predicted to peak in the UK at 11:59am GMT.

For most people the effect will be largely unnoticeable, though should lead to a sense of general light-footedness and good humour, particularly when coupled with the occasional burst of sunshine today. For climbers however, where incremental gains can make huge differences, it's thought that today could see people's max bouldering grade rocketing during the low gravity window, with those normally climbing 5B being able to crush routes graded 7A or harder.

It's a great chance to come down and try out the new Comp Wall set, which was set last week with the low gravity window in mind.

We're open all day today (Bank Holiday Monday) from 8am.

(Image credit: By WP - Planets2008.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45708230)