Earth is spinning faster lately

Scientists around the world have noticed that the Earth is spinning on its axis faster lately – the fastest on record. Several scientists have spoken to the press about the unusual phenomenon, with some pointing out that the past year has seen some of the shortest days on record.

For most of human history, time has been marked by the 24-hour day / night cycle (with some modifications made for convenience as the seasons change). The cycle is governed by the speed at which the planet rotates on its axis. For this reason, the length of a day has become the standard by which the time is marked – each day lasts approximately 86,400 seconds. The day / night cycle is remarkably consistent despite the fact that it varies slightly on a regular basis.

Several decades ago, the development of atomic clocks began to allow scientists to record the passage of time in incredibly small increments, making it possible to measure the length of any given day down to milliseconds. And this led to the discovery that the rotation of the planet is actually much more variable than previously thought. Since the start of these measurements, scientists have also found that the Earth was slowing its rotation very gradually (compensated for by inserting a leap second every now and then) – until this year, when it started to rotate. faster – so much so that the domain began to question whether a negative negative leap second might be necessary this year, an unprecedented suggestion. Scientists also noted that last summer, July 19, the shortest day on record – it was 1.4602 milliseconds shorter than the norm.

Planetary scientists are not concerned about the new discovery; they learned that many factors impact the planetary rotation, including the pull of the moon, snow levels, and mountain erosion. They have also started to wonder if global warming could cause the Earth to spin faster as the high altitude snow caps and snows begin to disappear. Computer scientists, on the other hand, are somewhat concerned with the change in rotational speed – much of modern technology is based on what they describe as “real time”. Adding a negative leap second could cause problems, which is why some have suggested moving the world clocks from solar time to atomic time.

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