Generally speaking, the Earth rotates every 24 hours. But our planet has spun faster than ever since on June 29, 2022, scientists began using atomic clocks to measure its spin.
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The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) announced that the planet is spinning on its axis 1.59 milliseconds faster. Scientists don’t know exactly what affects the planet’s rotation rate. According to them, the change in speed will have a negative impact on the operation of all navigation systems on the planet, as well as computers, smartphones and communication systems.
The rate of Earth’s rotation has been measured since 1973, and scientists make this measurement using atomic clocks, thus determining the time it takes for the planet to complete one rotation around its axis. There is a generally accepted standard – the Earth cycles in 86,400 seconds, that is, in the same 24 hours – but the Earth never fully complies with this standard.
Why is the world accelerating?
There are many thoughts, but no conclusive evidence as to why the Earth spins faster. Some of the hypotheses are:
- Weight loss at the poles due to melting glaciers
- Ocean tides caused by seismic activities
- gravitational force of the moon
- The ‘Chandler wobble’ effect: Because the Earth is not perfectly spherical, it causes a small deviation in its axis of rotation.
“We don’t know why the Earth’s rotation is accelerating,” said Christian Bizouard of the International Astronomical Union. “We only have hypotheses about the cause. We assume that the cause is internal and lies in the motion of the Earth’s core.” said.
What will be the effects of accelerating Earth’s rotation?
According to Bizouard, the change in Earth’s rotation could have an impact on the atomic clocks used in GPS satellites, as these would need to be synchronized with lost seconds.
It will also have potential implications for communication systems on smartphones and computers synchronizing with Network Time Protocol servers.
Bizouard said that if the acceleration trend continues, a negative leap second will be needed to stabilize the clocks. However, the IERS said there is no need for such an adjustment at this time.
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