BY SARAH CHEMLA
The planet is speeding up and a negative leap second may soon be needed so atomic clocks can align correctly with the turning world.
What if the feeling that time flies were actually true?
Indeed, the Earth has been spinning abnormally quick lately, reported The Telegraph. The planet is now completing its rotation in 1.4602 milliseconds less than the usual 86,400 seconds.
The speed of the Earth‘s rotation varies constantly because of the complex motion of its molten core, oceans and atmosphere, as well as the effect of celestial bodies such as the Moon.
The friction of the tides and the change in distance between the Earth and the Moon all make for daily variations in the speed the planet rotates on its axis, the Telegraph reported, adding that even the snow building up on mountains and melting in the summer can shift the rotation.
July 19, 2020 was recorded as the shortest day since records began in the 1960s after highly accurate atomic clocks were developed and compared the length of a standard day to fixed stars in the sky.
