Recently, experts have noted that the speed of the Earth’s rotation has ceased to be stable. For example, last year our planet began to rotate a little faster for no apparent reason. In the same year, it slowed down again, reports the Daily Star.
Gradually, the matter becomes more and more serious. Some experts say that in the near future it may be necessary to maintain a new negative “leap second” in order to be able to synchronize time with the movement of the Earth.
The duration of each day reaches 86.4 thousand seconds. In order to correspond to UTC, specialists sometimes add a special “leap” second. The extra second was last added five years ago.
Nick Stamatakos talked about how they tried to create a model of how the time would have to be adjusted in the future. As a result, it turned out to calculate only the next six months.
The reason for this was that the planet suddenly begins to rotate slower and faster.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that the Moon is gradually moving away from the Earth. This could be one of the reasons for the planet’s instability.
Scientists do not exclude the possibility that someday a satellite may completely leave orbit, which will provoke catastrophic consequences for absolutely all living things on Earth.
