A new data that was released to the public suggests that the earth is currently spinning faster than it used to in the last 50 years.
According to the new data that was released, the planet that we are currently living in is spinning faster.
Earth is completing a full spin on its axis slightly faster than before, which means that are are losing .5 seconds of a full 24-hour day.
The timekeepers at the IERS (International Rotation Service) confirmed the news.
They also said that deleting a full second from time could account for the overall change and could bring the time count back in line with the rotation of our planet.
The negative leap second, which is also called as the deletion of a second in time, has never occurred before, so it is possible that it might happen this year.
Since the 1960s, researchers have tracked time in the best possible way with the help of atomic clocks.
For the last 50 to 60 years, our planet has taken a fraction less than 24 hours, which is 86,400 seconds, to complete one rotation.
But something happened in the middle of 2020.
Days are now shorter than 86,400.
On July 19, 2020, the day was short by 1.4602 milliseconds.
Peter Whibberly, a senior research scientist in the National Physical Laboratory’s time and frequency group, confirmed this too.
During an interview with news agencies, they said:
It is certainly correct that the Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the last 50 years. It’s quite possible that a negative leap second will be needed if the Earth’s rotation rate increases further, but it’s too early to say if this is likely to happen. There are also international discussions taking place about the future of leap seconds, and it’s also possible that the need for a negative leap second might push the decision towards ending leap seconds for good.
The 0.5 seconds might not be really big, however, it affects a lot of instruments that are being consonantly used by researchers.