Earth just spun faster than normal and it is DANGEROUS for us

On July 29, the Earth completed the rotation on its axis about 1.59 milliseconds earlier than usual. While that seems like a very small number to actually care about, its long term consequences can be disastrous.

The Earth had its shortest day in history on July 29 when it completed one full spin about 1.59 milliseconds shorter. Find out what consequences it can have on us. (Pexels)

On July 29, the Earth did something strange. It completed one full rotation along its axis around 1.59 milliseconds earlier than its scheduled time. This made the day officially the shortest day in observable history. And while this is the fastest the Earth has completed its full rotation, the trend of its accelerating speed is not new. The previous crown-holder for the shortest day belonged to July 19, 2020 when our planet completed the day 1.47 milliseconds faster. The year 2021 also witnessed a similar speeding incident but it did not break any records. Scientists are worried this continuing trend can have disastrous consequences on us, although we may not be able to realize it right now. Read on to know what they are.

It was first reported by TimeAndDate.com that the Earth created history by completing its fastest spin ever. It should be noted that when we say ‘shortest day', we do not mean the solar day which takes 24 hours to see the Sun in the same location in the sky. The time the Earth generally takes to complete one spin across its axis is called a sidereal day and it is defined as 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds. This is calculated with respect to distant stars. And because we know these times, calculating the speed of Earth's spin is possible.

As Earth spins faster, GPS satellites are at a high risk

According to a report by Interesting Engineering, the long term consequences of this trend of Earth spinning faster can be concerning. And the biggest victim of this will be GPS satellites which use atomic clocks. Atomic clocks do not take Earth's increasing speed into consideration. As a result, if the Earth keeps increasing its speed and completes its rotation earlier than expected, then the atomic clocks become completely obsolete.

The GPS satellites are majorly used for smartphones, computers and communication systems and due to this synchronization, these systems will also have their time affected. Now, the real problem will emerge if the various applications and programmes running in these devices are not aligned with an atomic clock. Due to the discrepancy, programmes can crash and stored data can be corrupted.

It should be noted that this issue will likely not occur for at least another decade even if the Earth keeps speeding as per the trends and it is likely that most systems will either shift to network protocol time (NTP) or stop using atomic clocks altogether. However, the future of GPS satellites looks bleak.