“If there were fewer hours in a day,” no one ever said.
However, the Earth is slowing down for no one. In fact, according to global officials, it is accelerating, prompting suggestions to shorten the minute by a second, the Telegraph reported.
The data show that our 24-hour daily rotation is gradually decreasing, making the day a little shorter. For example, Sunday lasted only 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59.9998927 seconds, according to TimeAndDate.com. And, although the rate of rotation of the planet may accelerate or slow down slightly from one day to the next, due to natural terrestrial and celestial changes, trends in the astronomical calendar indicate that recent years have become generally shorter.
For example, 2020 has exceeded the shortest day of 2005 28 times, and 2021 is projected to be about 19 milliseconds shorter than a typical year, with an average daily deficit of 0.5 milliseconds.
Watchmakers around the world are used to spending time with them. Since the development of the atomic clock in the 1960s, “27 seconds” have been added 27 times to compensate for slowdown rotation, according to EarthSky.org. However, the last time the adjustment was requested was in 2016. Since then, the Earth has begun to rotate faster than usual, and now scientists are suggesting a possible “negative jump second” to balance time. with our position in space.
“It is certainly fair that the Earth is spinning faster now than ever in the last 50 years,” Peter Whibberley, lead researcher on the National Physics Laboratory’s time and frequency group, told the Telegraph.
“It is very possible that a negative jump will be needed if the Earth’s rotation rate continues to rise, but it is too early to say whether this is likely to happen,” Whibberley continued. He added that an “international discussion … about the future of bisective seconds” will determine whether or not the timers continue their attempts to make up for lost time.
Fractional difference may not be felt on an individual scale, but the implications are critical for science and technology, as satellite communications and navigation systems are based on coherent synchronization with the cosmos.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, based in Paris, is tasked with declaring secondary jump plans to the nations of the world, but some argue that the practice of adding and removing seconds to correct time can cause more confusion than good. In 2012, an additional second caused servers to crash on several websites, including Reddit, Yelp and LinkedIn, while disrupting those using Linux operating systems and software using Javascript.
As a result, some national leaders have struggled to eliminate secondary corrections in favor of using an unrestricted atomic clock – shorter days and all. That decision will eventually be left to the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, according to the Telegraph.