Time is not on your side this summer.
The Earth is set to have three remarkably shorter than average days in the coming weeks as the Earth’s rotation unexpectedly accelerates, according to scientists.
Our pale blue dot’s daily rotation is normally equivalent to about 86,400 seconds — or 24 hours — but three days this summer will see as much as 1.51 milliseconds shaved off the clock, according to a report from Popular Mechanics.
The International Rotation and Reference Systems Service found that July 9, July 22, and Aug. 5 will be victims of the time-slicing, putting them among the shortest since 2020.
Scientists said these dates will be when the Moon is furthest from the equator which will impact the rate of the Earth’s rotation, the report stated.
The shortest day recorded since 2020 was July 5, 2024, which was a full 1.66 milliseconds shorter than average — with experts unable to pin down the reason for the increased acceleration.
“Nobody expected this,” Leonic Zotov, Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, told TimeandDate.com regarding the quickening trend.
“The cause of this acceleration is not explained. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don’t explain this huge acceleration,” Zotov added.
Earth’s official timekeepers may need to take a first-ever drastic measure to keep up with the new pace — instating a “negative leap second” in 2029, according to a study published in Nature last year.
“This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,” study lead author and geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California Duncan Agnew said at the time.
“It’s not a huge change in the Earth’s rotation that’s going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It’s yet another indication that we’re in a very unusual time.”
Days on Earth have not always been 24-hours long, with rotations during the Bronze Age clocking in at roughly 23 hours.
