The Earth's Rotation Is About to Spin Up So Much That Tomorrow Will Be Much Shorter Than Today

The Earth's Rotation Is About to Spin Up So Much That Tomorrow Will Be Much Shorter Than Today

I Want to Get Off Mr. Bones' Wild Ride

"The cause of this acceleration is not explained."

Spin Cycle

The Earth's rotation is about to accelerate significantly.

According to scientists, July 9, July 22, and August 5 of this year will be some of the shortest days in recent memory as a result, slicing well over a millisecond off the usual 24 hours, Timeanddate.com reports.

That's despite the Earth's full rotation taking almost exactly 86,400 milliseconds, the equivalent of 24 hours.

The short upcoming days buck a decades-long trend. Since 1972, scientists have sliced a "leap second" from the clock a whopping 27 times thanks to a steady deceleration.

Our planet's sudden — and significant — acceleration caught scientists by surprise.

"Nobody expected this," Moscow State University astronomer Leonid Zotov told Timeanddate.com. "The cause of this acceleration is not explained."

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