Space.com
On Tuesday, Aug. 5, Earth’s solar day will be ever so slightly shorter than usual 24 hours, according to Timeanddate.com, making it not only one of the shortest days of 2025, but also since records began.
At just 1.25 milliseconds under the 86,400-second mark, it won’t be noticeable, but it’s part of a puzzling trend that’s baffling scientists: Earth is spinning faster. After decades of slowing down, our planet’s rotation has been speeding up in recent years — and timekeepers have no definitive explanation. More
But we scientists have totally nailed climate. Trust.
Does the accelerated spin make me seem heavier? Because that would explain a lot.
You have got to be kidding me…
How in the hell can you measure the rotation of the earth down to milliseconds?
What is your reference point? Some object in space that is moving relative to the earth at many miles per millisecond?
It is because of CO2. Everyone knows that.
Well I got to work late. I guess I’ll go home early to make up for it.
it’s the windmills. and spinning faster will make you feel lighter, I did the math once, flying eastbound you are lighter, westbound you’re heavier.
A coupling between the Earth’s weakening magnetic field ‘dynamo’ and it’s rotational kinetic energy? And lets throw in the Sun along with the rapidly changing Galactic current. There. Now I can scratch my head for a long time, like 1.25 milliseconds.
Jethro
Easy to calculate, a lot tougher to prove.
@Jethrow
Kudo’s
How could anyone distinguish 1 ten thousands of a second in order to give them more sustainable Life
Well I guess that we’ll have to… make a February 30 every so many… (where are the math mavins here?) centuries?
If we’re spinning faster (=less time) and you’re not standing at the poles, your centrifugal acceleration would be higher so the sum of it and the gravity vector would be less. So you’d be tiny bit lighter. May I suggest the beer fridge?
Come on make up your minds, first it’s slowing down, next it’s speeding up, oh I’m so confused.. Doom Goblin Greta, help us!
Am I getting robbed of sleep or do I have a shorter workday?
I feel cheated.
Does this mean that birthdays will come quicker and we’ll get older faster? Dang.
Is there a chance that Pritzker could fly off into orbit?
I Think We’re All Bozos on God’s cosmic wheel balancer…
Hell, anybody over 50 can tell time is speeding up.
Ice accumulation at the South Pole. Several years of successive accumulation and its like a ballerina pulling her arms in to spin faster… Not that they’ll ever admit that to you.
KR (currently in occupied territory)
I’m not going to make a decision until Al Gore gives us his opinion. /s
FFS, Kali.
Now I have an image of the Earth wearing a giant a tutu. lol
(It’s orange. Because orange and blue are complimentary colors.)
Dammit. Complementary. Complementary.
TRUMPS FAULT!
Not that I have seen such a story in years, but the news used to carry, usually on January 1 and July 1, that the atomic clock was adjusted to match earth time. It’s not there was a problem with the atomic clock, but rather that it was a better time keeper than the earth.
A millisecond is only one thousandth of a second so I doubt seriously if anyone will know the difference.
@RadioMattM — Always keep in mind that atomic clocks are digital and the solar system is analog. 😄
@MJA —
“What a beautiful blue your nose is, Blue!”
“Why, thank you Orange. And your argyles are fabulous!”
Kali Refugee in Texas
TUESDAY, 5 AUGUST 2025, 18:23 AT 6:23 PM
“Ice accumulation at the South Pole. Several years of successive accumulation and it’s like a ballerina pulling her arms in to spin faster…”
You may be on to something. I think a contributing factor is all the “migrants” moving from south and Central America (near the equator) to the U.S. may have done the same thing. Kind of like Guam capsizing if too many Marines get stationed there.
3I/ATLAS………
It’s because that lard-ass Rosie O’Donut now lives in Ireland, balancing out the weight distribution.
It could have to do with the gravitational pull of other planets changing as out proximity to them changes. That’s all I got.
our,,, not out.
Durn it, I’ll never get that 1.25 milliseconds back. Whatta waste of my valuable time.