The earth is turning faster and faster.
famous "earth out" photos. Scientists at NASA
have recently discovered a phenomenon that seems trivial, but in fact it is abnormal, and is more likely to be related to some deep cause-the earth's rotation speed has accelerated in 2020. In the past year, the length of several days was the shortest in history.
The rotation speed of the earth is the decisive factor for the length of a day. Generally speaking, a day is about 86400 seconds. After the emergence of the atomic clock , scientists have mastered more accurate timekeeping tools. At the same time, people have also discovered that the rotation speed of the earth is changing, and this trend of change has been slower and slower in the past few decades.
However, the earth's rotation speed of in 2020 is going against the trend. Several days in 2020 are short. July 19 was even the shortest day ever-1.4602 seconds shorter than the standard length, breaking the historical record. According to this momentum, the earth's rotation speed will be faster in 2021.
In theory, there are many factors that affect the rotation speed of the earth, such as the gravity of the moon, the amount of snowfall , and the erosion of mountains. But what caused the earth's rotation speed to increase suddenly is very difficult to determine.
Some scientists believe that this is related to global warming. Climate warming will cause massive melting of polar ice caps and high-altitude areas of ice and snow, and affect the rotation speed of the earth. But this is only speculation.
The abnormal rotation speed of the earth does cause some trouble, even if the abnormality is very subtle, because many modern technologies rely on a certain value of the length of a day. Maybe in the future we should adopt a more precise "atomic time" instead of the current "solar time".
Reference
The Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the past half century
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/04/earth-spinning-faster-now-time-past-half- century/
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