Oh my days! Midnight comes a fraction sooner as Earth spins faster

It's time to blame the revolution for the tight time. It was the shortest day since 1960 when scientists began measuring the planet's rotation with high-precision atomic clocks.

Earth makes one full turn on its axis every day. Patterns of life have been shaped by sunrise and sunset because of that single spin. The curtains fell early on June 29th.

A lot of records have fallen in the last few years, with shorter days being recorded more frequently. The Earth has turned out 28 of the shortest days in the past 50 years, with the shortest being on July 19th. The record was close to being broken again last month.

Is the world moving at a fast pace? The Earth is spinning more slowly than it used to due to the geological timescales that cause the rise and fall of the dinosaurs. It would take less than 19 hours for the clock to wind back. Earth days are getting longer by about 74,000th of a second every year. The Earth's rotation is slowed by the effects of the moon's tug on the planet.

The clock is stopped for a second in June and December to keep it in line with the planet's spin. In 1972 the second leap was added. It is unlikely that the next opportunity will be in December 2022.

The situation is messier on shorter timescales as the Earth slows down. The surface of the Earth is made of glaciers, oceans, and vanishing continents. The planet is covered in a thick blanket of gases and it is spinning on its axis. The Earth's rotation is influenced by all of these.

Stronger winds in El Nio years can slow down the planet's spin and extend the day by a fraction of a second. The opposite effect can be caused by earthquakes. The length of the day was shortened by nearly three microseconds because of the 2004 earthquake.

If mass moves towards the center of the Earth, it will speed up the planet's rotation. Slow down the spin will be caused by Geological activity that pushes mass out from the center.

Scientists are trying to figure out how all these processes affect the length of a day. The first negative leap second could be called if the trend for shorter days continues. Civil time would be skipped a second to keep up with the speed of the world. The debate over whether defining time by the movement of the planet is an idea that has had its time could be renewed.