by Planet Earth will shoot a little faster on July 9 on three separate days this summer. This will lead to shorter days, but the change will be so tiny that they will not even notice.
Several milliseconds are shaved by the 24 hours that the earth needs to complete a full rotation – we speak even less time than blinking an eye.
Why does the rotation speed of the earth change?
Planet Earth is our timekeeper, but it is not perfect.
It takes 24 hours – one day – to complete a full rotation on its axis that breaks down to 86,400 seconds. But the rotation of the earth could change by one millisecond (0.001 seconds) every day.
The orbit of the moon can have an impact on how quickly the earth is implementing. “Our planet rotates faster when the position of the moon is far north or south of the Earth Equator,” says Timeanddate.com.
“Earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal forces, underground geology and many other mechanisms can lead to the rotation of the planet slowing down or accelerating, and these micro adjustments can be a trend over time”
The earthquake of the 8.9 size, which Japan met in 2011, accelerated the rotation of the earth and reduced the length of the standard 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds (0.0018 milliseconds).
These tiny daily fluctuations in the speed of the earth were measured with atomic clocks in the 1950s. Any number above or below the standard of 86,400 seconds is referred to as the duration of the day (LOD).
The shortest day learned on July 5, 2024, when the earth completed its full rotation 1.66 milliseconds faster than the standard -86,400 seconds.
When will that happen?
This summer there are three days on which the moon lies around the longest distance from the equator of the earth, which leads to a tiny increase in the earth’s speed. The following are predictions from scientists:
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July 9: The day is shortened by 1.30 milliseconds
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July 22: The earth loses 1.38 milliseconds of the day
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August 5: The day is shortened by 1.51 milliseconds
Wait – isn’t there another day that is considered the shortest of the year?
What feels like the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is known as a winter solstice when the earth is removed from the sun at most. This leads to very few daylight hours all year round and takes place in mid -December.
Will the earth always have 24 hours a day?
There were not always 24 hours a day. The researchers believe that in the Jura time it took only 23 hours to lead a complete rotation around their axis. Scientists have found that the length of one day on earth increased by about 1.7 milliseconds every century. Over time, this adds up. Experts believe that there will be 25 hours in a whole day in 200 million years.
