On June 29, it was 1.59 milliseconds shorter than 24 hours. Although a similar phenomenon has been recorded before, there was no such indicator in the entire history of observation. The most accurate atomic clock in the world helps detect this aberration. It has been tracking time since the 1960s.

Opening details

As we know, the Earth makes one complete rotation around its axis in 24 hours. Scientists who study the Earth’s rotation use the term “day length” to talk about how fast or slow the Earth rotates. The length of a day is the difference between the actual time it takes for the planet to make one complete revolution and 86,400 seconds (24 hours). The longer the day, the slower the Earth rotates. As it decreases and becomes a negative number, the Earth spins faster.

Data from recent years often show negative numbers. In 2020 alone, the planet broke its own speed record 28 times.

• The shortest day of 2020 was -1.47 milliseconds on July 19.
• No record broken as the planet slowed down a bit in 2021
• In 2022, scientists again saw momentum. On June 29, Earth set a new record for the shortest day in the atomic clock era, with -1.59 milliseconds.
• And in July it slowed down again, showing -1.50 milliseconds on the 26th.

It is not known for certain why this happens. it is assumed that It can be related to processes in the inner or outer layers of the earth, its structure, its oceans, tides, and even its climate.. In addition, there is a theory that the cause may be the fluctuation of the Earth’s geographic poles.

If the Earth’s rapid rotation continues, it could eventually lead to the first negative leap second. This would be necessary so that the time of the planet’s population, based on the ultra-steady rhythm of atomic clocks, corresponds to solar time, based on the movement of the Sun in the sky. An extra negative second means our clocks will miss a second, potentially causing problems for IT systems.