The Earth’s rotation is getting faster – should we be worried?

British daily newspaper telegraph I recently mentioned that the Earth’s rotation has been changing for several months. Many scientists around the world are already watching this phenomenon.

Earth’s rotation

As you know, the rotation of the Earth determines the length of the day. Earth takes 24 hours for one cycle, which is 86,400 seconds. Depending on the season, there may be small spells.

Only since the invention of the atomic clock have scientists been able to determine the length of day and night in a fraction of a thousandth of a second. The resulting data allow a more accurate determination of the Earth’s rotation.

Earth is in a hurry

Thanks to the atomic clock, scientists were able to discover that the speed at which the Earth rotates can change dramatically over time. The Scientific Journalphys.org According to this, this has a huge impact on the length of our day.

(The Earth) is starting to spin faster – so much so that some in the field are questioning whether a negative leap second will be needed by the end of this year. There has never been anything like it before.

On July 19, 2020, scientists discovered it was the shortest day on record. That day was 1.4602ms shorter than the day’s average.

Cause for concern?

There are two opinions about this: Scientists don’t worry too much about it, whereas computer scientists are totally concerned about the change in Earth’s speed.

Scientists are sure that many natural factors affect the speed of the planet’s rotation. Moon’s gravity, mountain erosion and snow depth. Is global warming playing a role as well? Nothing is clear yet. However, according to them, you don’t have to worry.

However, computer scientists see it differently, because “a large part of modern technology depends on what they describe as” real time, “such as phys.org And the The Telegraph Clarification.

A second less

Peter Weberley, chief scientist, Britain’s National Physics Laboratory, told Dr. telegraph :

To be sure, the Earth is now spinning faster than at any time in the past 50 years. It is entirely possible that a negative leap second will be required as the Earth’s rotation speed continues to increase. But it is too early to say with certainty that it will get there.

Unfortunately, adding a “negative leap second” can lead to some timing issues. Therefore, some scientists suggest aligning UTC with atomic time. You can find more information on this in our video to this article.