By: Jayden Dudek
Research shows Earth is spinning faster than it was half a century ago.
The record for the fastest Earth ever spun in a day was 1.95 millionths of a second less on June 29th, 2022.
If the Earth continues to speed faster and faster, scientists might have to set the atomic clocks one second backward.
“The impact of a negative leap second has never been tested on a large scale; it could have a devastating effect on the software relying on timers or schedulers,” wrote production engineer, Oleg Obleukhov, and research scientist, Dr. Ahmad Byagowi, in a Meta blog post.
Three scientists, Dr. Leonid Zotov, Dr. Christian Bizouard, and Dr. Nikolay Sidorenkov called the uneven rotation “The Chandler Wobble.” It might be caused by a misshapen movement of the Earth’s North and South Poles across its mantle.
Some experts say the freezing and melting of the ice caps on high mountains like Mount Everest could be a reason why the speed of the rotation has increased.
A negative leap second might lead to an issue, which occurred at the beginning of the year 2000 when some computers failed to handle the negative leap second correctly.
Scientists predict that the negative leap second might happen on March 19th, 2038, and they have already begun to make preparations.
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