Our world constantly spins around its own axis, and thank God it never stops! That would have tragic consequences for many of us, as the American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out! But instead, it seems that the spin itself has become a bit faster.
UK’s National Physical Laboratory discovered that our planet is spinning faster than it did a few decades ago. As a result, days are becoming shorter, according to the New York Post.
The shortest day ever recorded took place this year
The shortest day ever recorded took place this year on June 29. While a full rotation of the Earth usually takes 24 hours, it needed 1.59 milliseconds less on that day.
Graham Jones, an astrophysicist, explains what would happen if Earth’s spin keeps increasing, as TimeandDate.com quotes:
If Earth’s fast rotation continues, it could lead to the introduction of the first-ever negative leap second.
This would be required to keep civil time—which is based on the super-steady beat of atomic clocks—in step with solar time, which is based on the movement of the Sun across the sky.
A negative leap second would mean that our clocks skip one second, which could potentially create problems for IT systems.
The Earth is moving, along with everybody living on it, at the speed of 800mph. DeGrasse Tyson explained that if Earth stopped spinning even for a second, everybody would fall over and roll at the speed of 800mph to the East. Everybody would be killed, and people would be flying out of the windows.
Neil deGrasse Tyson also explained what would happen if the Earth slowed down in its spin. The answer might surprise you: he only thinks that we would only have “really long days.”
