Although it sounds like science fiction, Our planet is turning faster than usual. Since 2020, astronomers have detected that the rotation of the earth has been accelerating without, for now, there is a definitive explanation. The Astrophysician Graham Jones, who investigates this phenomenon, has pointed out three possible dates in which we could record the shortest day in modern history: July 9 and 22, or on August 5, 2025.
Of course, before panic: We are not going to win a day off. The shortening would be only 1.66 milliseconds, a fraction so small that we would not even notice the difference.
What intrigues scientists is not so much the exact duration of the day, but the cause of this change. Although there are several theories on the table, the exact origin still escapes the understanding of the scientific community. The most curious thing is that, for centuries, the trend had been the opposite: the earth revolved more and more slowly.
Normally, a solar day is 86,400 seconds, that is, 24 exact hours. However, terrestrial rotation has never been completely regular. In fact, the effect of the tides caused by the attraction of the Moon has gradually brake our planetary turn … until in 2020 everything changed, for no clear reason.
From that turning point, the records have broken record after record. In 2021, one of the days was 1.47 milliseconds shorter than usual. In 2022, the cut reached 1.59 milliseconds. In 2023, they were 1.31. And the current record shows it on July 5, 2024, with a day that lasted 1.66 milliseconds less than normal.
No human stopwatch is needed to detect this. Thanks to atomic watches of very high precision, it can be measured up to the slightest variation in the duration of the day. Without them, these differences would happen totally inadvertent.
Although there is still no scientific consensus, lThe dates indicated by 2025 coincide with a specific position of the lunar orbit, When our satellite is further from the Earth’s Ecuador. This situation could be influencing, but there is still no conclusive confirmation.
For billions of years, The moon has been braking the terrestrial rotation. For example, it is believed that about 4.5 billion years ago, one day it lasted between three and six hours. With the passage of time, the gravitational interaction with the Moon has extended the days until the 24 hours we know today.
(tagstotranslate) science
