Earth no longer takes 24 hours to complete a full rotation. What?! Yes! It’s spinning faster and faster, but don’t be dramatic, you’re not getting dizzy because you don’t notice it! It’s an acceleration of milliseconds, something imperceptible to the human eye, but it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the world’s major observatories. And yes, we’ve already lived through the shortest day of the year. You didn’t notice it, you didn’t work fewer hours, nothing, because it was only 1.37 milliseconds shorter than usual.
And wait, because more short days are expected for the rest of the summer.
What’s going on that even Earth is in a hurry?
And if you’re wondering why this matters to you… Remember that absolutely all of our technologies depend on atomic clocks and servers, which are managed with extreme precision. In the past, leap seconds were added to synchronize our clocks with the Earth’s actual rotation. But if this trend continues, we could face something never seen before: subtracting a second. And that, for the digital world, could be as delicate as the feared Y2K bug… but maybe you’re too young to know what that was… (laughs in grandma voice)
What’s happening with Earth’s rotation?
Since 1972, scientists have observed a general trend of increasing rotation speed. Although there are fluctuations (like the stock market, experts say), days are becoming slightly shorter than usual. The record was set on July 5, 2024, with a day that was 1.66 milliseconds shorter!!!
But of course, what we want to know here is the cause, right? Well, there are several: the Moon’s gravitational pull, atmospheric behavior, seasonal changes and even movements of the planet’s liquid core. In summer, for example, the atmosphere moves differently, and that affects the speed of rotation.
The role of atomic clocks and UTC
Since 1955 we’ve used atomic clocks to measure time with maximum precision. These devices measure the oscillations of atoms and are the basis for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which our phones, computers and global servers follow.
If the planet’s rotation and UTC don’t match, a leap second is applied. Until now, only extra seconds have been added, but shorter days open up the possibility of having to remove one. That’s known as a “negative second” and it has never happened before. And of course, its implementation is raising concerns in the tech world because it hasn’t been tested and could cause failures in critical systems that operate with extreme precision…
Climate change also has something to do with it
Paradoxically, climate change is offsetting the increase in speed. The melting of Greenland and Antarctica is redistributing mass across the planet, slightly slowing its rotation. If it weren’t for global warming, we’d already be facing that dreaded negative second.
This phenomenon is also affecting Earth’s axis of rotation. If emissions continue at the current pace, the effects of climate change could even surpass those of the Moon, which for billions of years has been the greatest influence on the planet’s spin.
Should we be worried?
Well, we’re not going to live to see the Earth spinning like a top… For now, the changes are within reason and scientists are observing cautiously. Predictions beyond a year are uncertain, but the possibility of having to adjust time backwards is more real than ever.
In the meantime, experts are calling to prepare the tech landscape to avoid surprises. Because even if a millisecond doesn’t change our daily lives, it can be enough to cause serious errors in a world that relies on time with absolute precision.
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