Planet Earth recorded its shortest day since recordings ever began, and it was 3 days ago, on June 29, and this may make scientists resort to accelerating the global clocks.
achieved Earth 1.59 milliseconds less than the usual 24-hour rotation on June 29, which raises the possibility of a leap second to keep the clocks consistent, and this will be the first time that global clocks have been accelerated, according to the British Daily Mail website.
Previous record for shortest day on Earth
it is known that Earth’s rotation It’s been slowing down, taking 27 leap seconds to keep atomic time accurate since the 1970s, most recently on New Year’s Eve 2016 when clocks paused for a second to allow Earth to catch up, but since 2020, the phenomenon has reversed.
The previous record for the shortest day to pass on Earth was in 2016, when the Earth achieved 1.47 milliseconds less than usual rotation in 24 hours on July 19 of that year.
Effect of adding or removing a leap year to the international clock
Experts and scientists state that it is generally not possible for humans to detect the change in time, but this can affect satellites and navigation systems.
Experts say that “Chandler and Bobble,” a term describing a change in the Earth’s rotation on its axis, may be to blame.
Dr Leonid Zotov, of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Moscow, explains: “The amplitude of natural vibration is about four meters at the Earth’s surface, but it disappeared from 2017 to 2020, and there are other factors that can affect the length of Earth days including the accumulation of snow on the mountains. in the northern hemisphere in the winter and then melt in the summer.” Global warming is also thought to have an effect by melting ice and snow at a faster rate.
It is worth noting that the International Earth Rotation Service in Paris monitors the rotation of the planet and informs countries when leap seconds should be added or removed, and is fully committed to this by notifying everyone six months before the addition or removal.