The Earth Just Started Spinning Faster Than Ever Before And Scientists Don't Know Why
The Earth Just Started Spinning Faster Than Ever Before And Scientists Don't Know Why
Authored by Elijah
Cohen via TheMindUnleashed.com, August 1, 2022
The Earth recently completed a
rotation faster than ever before at 1.59 millisecond under 24 hours,
and the consequences
for how we keep time have experts around the world alarmed.
It could be the first time in
world history that global clocks will have to be sped up.
“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,” Time and Date reported.
Scientists
don’t know what is causing our planet to spin faster than ever before, but
some experts fear it
could be “devastating,” while
others speculate the shorter days could be related to climate change, of
course.
Since the Earth’s rotation has always largely been slowing down throughout
time, atomic clocks have thus far only added positive leap seconds to keep up. 27
leap seconds have been needed to keep atomic time accurate since the 1970s.
However, it just emerged that on June 29, the Earth recorded
its shortest day since scientists began using atomic clocks to measure its
rotation, in what was only the latest of speed records set for our planet since
2020. It even came close again more recently on July 26, having completed a
rotation in 1.5 milliseconds under 24 hours.
“A negative leap second would mean that our clocks skip one second, which could
potentially create problems for IT systems,” the
Time and Date website warned.
Meanwhile, Meta warned in a blog post last
month that adding a negative leap second could have consequences for
smartphones, computers and communications systems.
Citing Meta’s blog, the Independent reported that
the leap second would “mainly benefits scientists and astronomers” but
that it is a “risky
practice that does more harm than good.”
Meta also warned that by adding a negative leap second, clocks
will change from 23:59:58 to 00:00:00, and that this could have an unintended “devastating
effect” on software relying on timers and schedulers.
This is due in part to the fact that time moving forward is
seen as a constant in most technological systems.
If the internal clocks of these IT systems ever have to be
adjusted backwards to account for an abnormally fast rotation of the Earth,
widespread disruptions and massive outages are to be expected.
Time and Date suggests that
the diminishing length of the shortest days may be related to Earth’s “inner
or outer layers, oceans, tides, or even temperature,” although
experts aren’t sure.
Leonid Zotov, Christian Bizouard, and Nikolay Sidorenkov will
argue at the upcoming annual meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society this
week that the Earth’s rotation speeding up may be related to the ‘Chandler
wobble,’ the term given to the small and irregular movement of the geographical
poles across the surface of the globe.
Experts
say the ‘Chandler Wobble’ – a change in the spin of the Earth on its axis – may
be to blame.
“The
normal amplitude of the Chandler wobble is about three to four meters at
Earth’s surface,” Zotov
told Time and Date, adding: “But from 2017 to 2020 it
disappeared.”
The International Earth Rotation Service in Paris,
which tracks the planet’s rotation, will notify governments
six months in advance if and when leap seconds must be added or removed.
As
for whether or not the Earth will keep spinning faster and faster as the days
continue to get shorter, nobody knows.
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