Latest news with #shortestDays
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The Earth's Rotation Is About to Spin Up So Much That Tomorrow Will Be Much Shorter Than Today
The Earth's rotation is about to accelerate significantly. According to scientists, July 9, July 22, and August 5 of this year will be some of the shortest days in recent memory as a result, slicing well over a millisecond off the usual 24 hours, reports. That's despite the Earth's full rotation taking almost exactly 86,400 milliseconds, the equivalent of 24 hours. The short upcoming days buck a decades-long trend. Since 1972, scientists have sliced a "leap second" from the clock a whopping 27 times thanks to a steady deceleration. Our planet's sudden — and significant — acceleration caught scientists by surprise. "Nobody expected this," Moscow State University astronomer Leonid Zotov told "The cause of this acceleration is not explained." "Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth," he added. "Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration." Scientists have long found that numerous factors can influence the speed of the Earth's rotation, from changing sea levels to the Moon steadily increasing its orbit away from our planet. Using atomic clocks, we've been able to keep extremely close tabs on how these influences are affecting how we measure time on Earth. While its rotation had been steadily declining, the Earth reversed the trend in 2020, beating 60-year-old records for the shortest days 28 times. One possible explanation is that the Moon could be at its furthest point from the Earth's equator, as IFLScience explains. Another culprit could be powerful earthquakes knocking the Earth off its already tilted axis. In 2011, scientists found that a 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have been ferocious enough to shorten days on Earth by offsetting its axis by roughly 6.5 inches. But whether the Earth will continue its surprising trend of spinning faster and faster remains a subject of debate. "There is a general consensus the Earth will slow down again (deceleration will win), but there is a risk that acceleration may be effective for a few decades," Geoscience Australia scientist Oleg Titov told The Guardian. More on Earth's rotation: Scientists Build Device to Generate Electricity Using the Earth's Rotation
News.com.au
04-07-2025
- Science
- News.com.au
Summer 2025 will have three of the shortest days on record
The Earth is set to have three remarkably shorter than average days in the coming weeks as the Earth's rotation unexpectedly accelerates, according to scientists. Our pale blue dot's daily rotation is normally equivalent to about 86,400 seconds — or 24 hours — but three days this summer will see as much as 1.51 milliseconds shaved off the clock, according to a report from Popular Mechanics. The International Rotation and Reference Systems Service found that July 9, July 22, and Aug. 5 will be victims of the time-slicing, putting them among the shortest since 2020. Scientists said these dates will be when the Moon is furthest from the equator which will impact the rate of the Earth's rotation, the report stated. The shortest day recorded since 2020 was July 5, 2024, which was a full 1.66 milliseconds shorter than average — with experts unable to pin down the reason for the increased acceleration. 'Nobody expected this,' Leonic Zotov, Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, told regarding the quickening trend. 'The cause of this acceleration is not explained. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration,' Zotov added. Earth's official timekeepers may need to take a first-ever drastic measure to keep up with the new pace — instating a 'negative leap second' in 2029, according to a study published in Nature last year. 'This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,' study lead author and geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California Duncan Agnew said at the time. 'It's not a huge change in the Earth's rotation that's going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It's yet another indication that we're in a very unusual time.' Days on Earth have not always been 24-hours long, with rotations during the Bronze Age clocking in at roughly 23 hours.
