Unless you’re a scientist, here’s something you didn’t know.
A report out this week says scientists the other day recorded the shortest day on Earth since the invention of the atomic clock.
The atomic clock measures the rotation of our planet… which is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to spin once on its axis, which is roughly 86,400 seconds. On June 29th, the rotation was 1.59 milliseconds short of the normal 24-hour day. And apparently the time it takes for our planet to rotate once has been getting shorter with the Earth speeding up very slowly and very slightly for many years.
It doesn’t sound like it’s that big a deal, but scientists say it may be due to what they call “glacial isostatic adjustment.” That’s defined as the movement of land due to melting glaciers.
Scientists explain that glaciers at the poles weigh down on the Earth's crust at the North and South poles. And they say that with the glaciers melting due to climate change, the shape of the earth becomes more rounded, and the slightly more circular shape helps the planet spin faster.
Doesn’t sound like it’s something to worry about, with one of the scientists saying, “our day-to-day existence doesn’t even recognize the millisecond.”
But if you sometimes feel that a day is going by too quickly, maybe it is, that is you’re keeping track of milliseconds. Otherwise it’s just another "blink of your eye".
(Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images