Read, Watch or Listen

Earth's rotation is speeding up, resulting in shorter days. July 10th saw the shortest day this year, 1.36 milliseconds less than 24 hours. This trend, ongoing since 1972, is impacting timekeeping systems reliant on atomic clocks. Scientists predict exceptionally short days on July 22nd and August 5th. While this currently has minimal impact on daily life, the possibility of a negative leap second – removing a second from UTC – increases, posing a potential technological challenge similar to the Y2K issue. Melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica is partially counteracting this acceleration.

Prepared by Olivia Bennett and reviewed by editorial team.