Earth's rotation is speeding up, resulting in shorter days. July 22nd will be the second-shortest day of the year, with a rotation 1.34 milliseconds shorter than usual. This is due to the moon's gravitational pull and potentially climate change. Recent years have seen record-breaking short days, raising the possibility of a "negative leap second" being added to atomic clocks in the future to compensate for the faster rotation. Historically, Earth's rotation has been much faster, slowing gradually over billions of years.

Prepared by Olivia Bennett and reviewed by editorial team.