
Earth Is Predicted To Spin A Little Faster On Three Days In July And August
Notably, the Earth rotates just over 365 times on its axis, which are number of days in a year. But this was not the case always, as various calculations have suggested that the number of days it took Earth to go around the Sun in the past has ranged from around 490 to 372 days.
Scientists believe several factors could contribute to this acceleration. The movements within the Earth's core could be influencing the planet's rotation. The redistribution of mass from melting glaciers might also be playing a role. El Nino and La Nina events, which redistribute mass around the globe, could also impact the Earth's rotation.
Judah Levine, a physicist in the time and frequency division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told Discover Magazine in 2021, "This lack of the need for leap seconds was not predicted."
"The assumption was, in fact, that Earth would continue to slow down and leap seconds would continue to be needed. And so this effect, this result, is very surprising."
The faster rotation might require adjustments to global timekeeping, potentially leading to the subtraction of a leap second for the first time ever in 2029.
"Nobody expected this," Leonid Zotov, expert on Earth rotation at Moscow State University, told Timeanddate.com. "The cause of this acceleration is not explained."
He added, "Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration."
The Timeanddate.com report mentioned that the Moon will be around its maximum distance from Earth's equator on the three possible dates for the shortest length of day (LOD) in 2025.
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Indian Express
16 hours ago
- Indian Express
Solar eclipse September 2025: Date, timings, details of the 5 upcoming celestial events
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It is advised to never look directly at the Sun without proper protection, including during partial or annular eclipses, or before/after totality. There are different types of solar eclipses; here are some that are going to appear in the upcoming eclipse. When the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth but they are not exactly in line, this is known as a partial solar eclipse. The Sun will have a crescent shape because only a portion of it will be covered. People who are not in the region where the Moon's inner shadow is visible witness a partial solar eclipse during a complete or annular eclipse. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon totally blocks the Sun's face as it moves between the Earth and the Sun. A total eclipse will occur for those who are in the middle of the Moon's shadow when it strikes Earth. As if it were dawn or sunset, the sky will grow darker. People who are in the path of a total solar eclipse, if the weather permits, the observer can see the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. Only during a total solar eclipse can spectators temporarily take off their eclipse glasses, which are different from ordinary sunglasses, for the brief instant when the Moon totally obscures the Sun. When the Moon is at or close to its furthest point from Earth, it can pass between the Sun and Earth in an annular solar eclipse. The Moon appears smaller than the Sun and does not entirely cover it because of its greater distance from Earth. Because of this, the Moon appears as a black disc on top of a brighter disc, giving the appearance of a ring surrounding the Moon. Here is a list of upcoming solar eclipses to mark your calendar, followed by a quick explainer on the phenomenon. On September 21 this year, a partial solar eclipse will take place. It will be visible from New Zealand, eastern Australia, the Pacific Islands, and Antarctica. The eclipse will begin at 17:29 UTC (10:59 PM IST), reach its peak at 19:41 UTC (1:11 AM IST on September 22), and end by 21:53 UTC (3:23 AM IST). The entire eclipse will be about 4 hours and 24 minutes. This event will not be visible from India, as it occurs overnight in the region. Another annular solar eclipse will happen on February 17, 2026. It will be the first solar eclipse of the year. It will be visible from parts of Africa, South America, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Indian Ocean, and Antarctica. The partial eclipse will start at 09:56 UTC (3:26 PM IST), and the annular phase (when the Sun appears as a 'ring of fire') will start at 11:42 UTC (5:12 PM IST). The peak eclipse occurs at 12:12 UTC (5:42 PM IST). The annular phase ends at 12:41 UTC (6:11 PM IST), and the partial eclipse ends by 14:27 UTC (7:57 PM IST). Similarly, another solar eclipse will take place on August 12, 2026. It would be the first total eclipse to be visible from mainland Europe since 1999. The eclipse will be visible from parts of Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Portugal, and Spain. The partial eclipse will start at 15:34 UTC (9:04 PM IST), while the total eclipse starts at 16:58 UTC (10:28 PM IST). The eclipse reaches its maximum at 17:46 UTC (11:16 PM IST) and ends at 18:34 UTC (12:04 AM IST, August 13). The final partial phase ends by 19:57 UTC (1:27 AM IST). This annular solar eclipse will take place on February 6, 2027, from parts of Africa, South America, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and Antarctica. The partial eclipse will start at 12:57 UTC (6:27 PM IST), while the annular (ring-shaped) eclipse will begin at 14:03 UTC (7:33 PM IST). The eclipse will likely reach its maximum at 15:59 UTC (9:29 PM IST). Meanwhile, the final phase of the annular eclipse will end at 17:55 UTC (11:25 PM IST), and the partial eclipse will end entirely by 19:01 UTC (12:31 AM IST on February 7). This total solar eclipse will take place on August 2, 2027. 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Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Earth is spinning faster and scientists fear a Y2K-like Doomsday
Earth is spinning faster than usual this summer, raising concerns among scientists about potential disruptions to global timekeeping systems — with fears reminiscent of the Y2K scare . According to a CNN report citing data from the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the US Naval Observatory, July 10 was the shortest day of the year so far, clocking in 1.36 milliseconds under the standard 24 hours. More short days are expected on July 22 and August 5. The Earth's rotation isn't perfectly consistent. Factors like lunar gravitational pull, seasonal atmospheric shifts, and the motion of the planet's liquid core cause slight variations in the length of a day. While the changes are typically imperceptible in daily life, even millisecond discrepancies can affect technologies that rely on hyper-accurate timing — such as telecommunications, satellite systems, and financial networks. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Data Analytics healthcare Technology Finance Project Management Data Science Management Public Policy others Design Thinking Data Science Healthcare Leadership Artificial Intelligence Others Digital Marketing Product Management Cybersecurity PGDM Degree CXO MBA MCA Operations Management Skills you'll gain: Data Analysis & Visualization Predictive Analytics & Machine Learning Business Intelligence & Data-Driven Decision Making Analytics Strategy & Implementation Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business Applied Business Analytics Starts on Jun 13, 2024 Get Details To maintain precise time, atomic clocks — which have been used since 1955 — track time to an extraordinary level of accuracy. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), used worldwide, is based on atomic clocks. If Earth's rotation falls out of sync with UTC, leap seconds are added to bring them back into alignment — a process that's occurred 27 times since 1972. However, as Earth's spin has been accelerating, no leap second has been added since 2016. Scientists are now warning that a negative leap second — subtracting a second instead of adding one — may be required as early as 2035. 'There's never been a negative leap second,' physicist Judah Levine told CNN, but the chances of it happening are now around 40%. Such a move could wreak havoc, especially since many systems still struggle with positive leap seconds even after five decades. A negative leap second, never before implemented, could cause failures across systems that depend on stable, continuous time — evoking comparisons to the Y2K bug. Interestingly, climate change may be buying time. The CNN article, citing a study published last year by Agnew in the journal Nature, claimed that melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica is redistributing mass across the planet, subtly slowing Earth's spin and counteracting the speed-up. Live Events Benedikt Soja, an assistant professor at The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, told CNN that if warming continues, "the effect of climate change could surpass the effect of the moon, which has been really driving Earth's rotation for the past few billions of years.' 'I think the (faster spinning) is still within reasonable boundaries, so it could be natural in a few years, we could see again a different situation, and long term, we could see the planet slowing down again. That would be my intuition, but you never know,' Soja added.


Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
5th July was the shortest day this year. Why is the Earth spinning faster this month?
The Earth spun faster this month, recording the shortest day this year on July 10. The world is set to witness similar events on Tuesday (July 22) and next month (August 5). According to data from the Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the US Naval Observatory, reported by CNN, the Earth recorded its shortest day on July 10, by completing a full rotation faster by a fraction of a second (1.36 milliseconds). Until 2020, the shortest day ever recorded was -1.05 ms, which means the Earth completed its rotation in 1.05 milliseconds less than 24 hours. The Earth has been consistently crossing this number since then, recording its shortest day ever on July 5 (-1.66 ms). The Earth takes 24 hours to rotate on its axis, a period known as 'Length of Day' or LOD. The LOD may vary by a time frame as unnoticeable as a millisecond (0.001 seconds or 1 ms), and these variations are recorded using devices known as atomic clocks. The variation in LOD depends on several factors, including the position of the Moon with respect to the Earth's equator, the oceans, and the atmosphere. The Moon's gravitational pull influences the Earth's rotation speed — it is slower when the satellite is closer to the equator and faster when it's at latitudes farther away from it. The atmosphere slows down due to seasonal changes, and the Earth compensates for it by rotating faster, as the combined angular momentum of Earth and its atmosphere must remain constant. As per the same principle, the slowdown of Earth's liquid core has caused the solid Earth around it to speed up. One reason the trend of faster days has drawn attention is the concept of the 'leap second.' For several decades, Earth was known to be slowing down, making days marginally longer. This led to adjustments, known as the positive leap seconds, being made to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to slow down the atomic clock and keep it in sync with the phenomenon. This has happened 27 times since 1972. With the Earth currently recording faster rotations than it used to, the atomic time may need adjustments in the opposite direction by removing a second, called a negative leap second. This has never happened before. Since so many global systems — including telecommunications, financial transactions, and GPS satellites — depend on accurate timekeeping, it could lead to disruptions akin to the Y2K problem. Hence, scientists are closely monitoring the shortening of days.