Scientists left confused as Earth spins faster than usual, making days shorter
Scientists have been left baffled after discovering the Earth is spinning faster than normal - making days shorter than usual.
New measurements by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory show that the Earth is currently spinning faster than it was half a century ago.
On June 29, the Earth’s full rotation took 1.59 milliseconds less than 24 hours - the shortest day ever recorded.
Scientists have warned that, if the rotation rate continues to speed up, we may need to remove a second from our atomic clocks.
“If Earth’s fast rotation continues, it could lead to the introduction of the first-ever negative leap second,” Astrophysicist Graham Jones reported via TimeandDate.com.
“This would be required to keep civil time - which is based on the super-steady beat of atomic clocks - in step with solar time, which is based on the movement of the Sun across the sky.
“A negative leap second would mean that our clocks skip one second, which could potentially create problems for IT systems.”
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