Do we need ‘Drop Second?’ The cause for concern is why the ground could be accelerating after decades of slowing down

Do you have a second? It is thought to be slowly slowing down, our planet is suddenly spinning faster than it has been for 50 years – and you need to know why.

Having become accustomed to “jumping in the second” every now and then to keep their atomic clocks right, international timekeepers are now trying to put first “Negative second jump” or “drop second”.

That’s because last year saw the shortest day – hence the fastest circulation – since people started counting. In fact, 2020 included the shortest 28 days since 1960.

So what’s going on? why is Land turning faster? And does it really matter?

The answer, as you might have guessed, it was possible be sinister – the melting of glaciers may be causing the Earth to spin faster in space.

How fast does the Earth spin?

The Earth typically orbits its brag axis in time, with one movement taking just 86,400 seconds (1,440 minutes or 24 hours). That is one sunny day, which we judge by the similar movement of the sun across the skies, although it is obviously caused by the rotation of the Earth.

However, our planet does not always work like clockwork. Our planet tends to spin slower.

Since 2020 the planet has stopped slowing down and is now going faster. A day now lasts for half a million hours less than 24 hours.

So what?

Why 2020 was a slow year for our planet

The record for the shortest rotation was from 1973 July 5, 2005, when the Earth’s rotation took 1.0516 milliseconds in less than 24 hours, according to the blog of Graham Jones and Konstantin Ikos “The Earth is in crisis in 2020”For TimeandDate.com.

“By mid-2020, Earth has surpassed that record at least 28 times,” Jones wrote. “The shortest day of all came on July 19, when the Earth ended its orbit in 1.4602 milliseconds in less than 86,400 seconds.”

Why does it matter how fast the Earth spins?

That may not sound like much, but it has a big impact over time because atomic clocks – used in GPS satellites – do not take into account the changing nature of the Earth.

If the Earth spins faster it gets to the same position a little earlier. The equator is half a millisecond to 10-inches or 26 centimeters long. In short, GPS satellites – which already need to be corrected for the impact of Einstein’s general relativity theory (space and time curve) – quickly become useless.

There are also potentially confusing effects for smartphones, computers, and communication systems, which come with Time Network Protocol (NTP) servers. Defined as the number of seconds from 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970, the standard Unix time is not designed to deal with jump seconds, although “drop second” would be less of a problem.

How solar eclipses help

The change in the speed of the Earth’s rotation makes it more difficult to estimate split-second events, such as solar supply.

In fact, it is a record of observation of eclipses by Babylonian, Chinese, Arab, and Greek astronauts which is one way of working out how fast the Earth must turn in the past tense.

It is possible to predict how long a solar eclipse path will be in the future, but it is more difficult to predict where it will occur.

why is Land turning faster?

The Earth’s rotation has been slowing down over the centuries – for now this is special.

The rotation of the Earth can change slightly due to many factors. Pressure, seismic activity and general movements of a molten heart within our planet are a major feature, and may even turn a little faster than the planet as a whole.

Other seismic activity such as earthquakes, such as the atmosphere, the weather, the oceans and the Moon, have a small effect. The latter gradually slows down the Earth’s orbit as its gravitational pull causes high tide and makes the Earth’s orbital orbit around the Sun slightly elliptical.

However, one theory suggests that it may be the slow rotation of the Earth that is to blame. Some research suggests that glaciers in the 20th century melted less pressure on rock at the poles, thus rising higher and making the planet more rounded. That effect could lead to faster spinning and could even slightly alter its tilt.

Why the Earth stopped in 2020

So 2020 was an exception, and in most years the average day lasts for a while more than 24 hours. After becoming accustomed to the gradual slowdown since 1973, the International Service for Global Circulation and Reference Systems (IERS) has been adding additional leap seconds in atomic clocks. every two or three years. That last happened on December 31, 2016, June 30, 2015 and June 30, 2012.

(The IERS tends to send (or, in theory, remove) a jump of seconds each June or December, announcing its decision several months in advance.)

So a few more have been built since the last second, but in 2020, the Earth stopped. The average length of the day was nearly 24 hours. Over the year it orbited the Sun just 1.28 milliseconds faster than average.

So the IERS just announced that they will not be jumping in second place next June. He may consider removing a tick in the future, which would be a first for IERS.

Why the Earth will accelerate in 2021

That’s because in 2021 he predicts that the Earth will go faster and by the end of the year there will be a deficit of 35.40 milliseconds.

The actual length of Earth’s orbit (known as UT1) is currently slightly behind Coordinated Time (UTC), the standard used to hold time around the world (which is following International Atomic Time (TAI).

In 2021 we will see a weakening of 19 milliseconds in atomic time, and if the recent acceleration in the Earth ‘s spin continues we will need something new to keep time on Earth – a second negative jump. That means a day lasting 86,399 seconds.

Do we really need to tick the atomic clocks of some years and remove them next to keep UTC close to the solar average time?

A faster spinning Earth has an impact. In our age, perhaps one of them is that the very concept of tuning atomic clocks is going to be a complete waste of time.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.