The Shortest Day on Earth Ever Recorded - The Storyy Trend Report 08/08/2022

Our planet set a record for completing one rotation faster than scientists had ever previously recorded, according to TimeAndDate.com. Earth rotated once around its axis on Wednesday, June 29, in 1.59 milliseconds less than 24 hours.

The cause of the differing speed of Earth’s spin is unknown, but theories abound:

• The melting of the glaciers means less weight on the poles
• Motions of our planet’s inner molten core
• Seismic activity
• The “Chandler wobble”—the movement of Earth’s geographical poles across its surface

If Earth spins faster then it gets to the same position a little earlier. A half-a-millisecond equates to 10-inches or 26 centimetres at the equator. In short, GPS satellites—which already have to be corrected for the effect of Einstein’s general relativity theory (the curve of space and time)—are quickly going to become useless.

There are also potentially confusing consequences for smartphones, computers and communications systems, which synchronize with Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers. It’s defined as the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970.