If it feels like you’re losing time in the day, you may be right.
Scientists claim that on June 29, 2022, the Earth spun faster than normal, making it the shortest day recorded since the 1960s.
The average day is 24 hours long (or exactly 86,400 seconds). According to CBS, who spoke to Leonid Zotov, a scientist at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of Lomonosov Moscow State University, June 29 was 1.59 millisecond shorter.
Zotov and a team of scientists recently published a study outlining possible hypotheses for Earth’s new accelerated rotation.
They reported that the Earth has been turning faster since 2016. According to the Guardian, 2020 had 28 of the shortest days recorded in the last 50 years. (Not every day, however, is shorter than 24 hours.)
The increased rotational speed came as a surprise to scientists who, as Zotov and his peers wrote in the study, previously believed the Earth had been decelerating over the past centuries.
Scientists have not been able to say for certain what is causing the increased speed, though Zotov and other scientists will present their research and theories at the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society conference this month.
Zotov told CBS he believes the Earth’s tides may play a factor in why the planet is spinning faster.
According to Forbes (who also spoke to Zotov), a decay in the “Chandler Wobble” may be what is causing the change in acceleration. The Chandler Wobble involves the movement of geographical poles across the surface of the globe, as Earth is a living, moving planet.
(The normal amplitude of the Chandler wobble is about three to four metres at Earth’s surface, but from 2017 to 2020 it disappeared, according to numerous scientific reports.)
“Polar motion is caused by geophysical processes in the Earth systems, in particular currents in the ocean, winds in the atmosphere, internal processes inside the Earth,” Zotov told Forbes. He told the outlet he believes “something is happening inside the Earth to the core and mantle.”
Whatever is happening to Earth’s core and mantle is what is decaying the Chandler Wobble and causing Earth’s deceleration, Zotov claims.
There are also other factors potentially at play, including natural weather occurrences. NASA has previously claimed that changes in atmospheric pressure and strong winds (like that of the El Niño years) can slow the speed of Earth’s rotation. Alternatively, events like earthquakes can speed up rotation.
This is not the first time the length of Earth’s days has changed. Scientists believe that more than 1.4 billion years ago, days on Earth were less than 19 hours long.
Still, despite there being no concrete answer for Earth’s new slowing speed, scientists and various professionals around the world are now disputing the best method to cope with the time shift.
Zotov said if Earth continues to rotate faster, atomic time — the universal way time is measured on Earth — may need to change.
One such proposal is to introduce a negative leap second. First proposed in the 1970s, a negative leap second would see one second removed from clocks to maintain Coordinated Universal Time (CUT). Leap seconds are usually implemented either on the last day of June or the last day of December.
While a negative leap second has never been used, there have been, in total, 27 positive leap seconds (one second added to clocks) implemented about every year and a half (on average), according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Some engineers strongly oppose the use of negative leap seconds, claiming it could cause widespread technological issues.
Meta, the tech giant that owns Facebook, shared a blog post by engineers Oleg Obleukhov and Ahmad Byagowi in July, insisting that leap seconds should be a thing of the past. They claim in the blog post that leap seconds mainly benefit “scientists and astronomers as it allows them to observe celestial bodies using UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) for most purposes.”
Obleukhov and Byagowi wrote that a negative leap second could cause IT programs to crash and may corrupt data on an international level, as seen in simulations the company claims to have run.
“Introducing new leap seconds is a risky practice that does more harm than good, and we believe it is time to introduce new technologies to replace it,” they continued.
The Meta-affiliated engineers believe the melting and refreezing of ice caps on the world’s tallest mountains may be a factor in Earth’s increased rotational speed.
“This phenomenon can be simply visualized by thinking about a spinning figure skater, who manages angular velocity by controlling their arms and hands,” they wrote. “As they spread their arms the angular velocity decreases, preserving the skater’s momentum. As soon as the skater tucks their arms back in the angular velocity increases.”
All in all, scientists, engineers and other time and Earth science-related professionals are now arguing whether time should continue to be defined by the movement of the planet.
What’s to be done about the increased speed of Earth, then? Only time can tell.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
