Mother Earth set a new record in the month of July. Earth completed a full rotation on its axis in 1.59 milliseconds less than the standard 24 hours, on July 29. With this, Earth marked the shortest day.
Researchers states that the speed of the earth’s rotation has been increasing lately. However, the reason for the same is still unknown.
If Earth sticks to this increase in rotation duration, negative leap seconds would be introduced. This would lead to disruptions and havoc on communication systems.
Scientists are of the view that Earth has been exhibiting the increase in rotation pace due to climatic changes, tidal movements and various processes inside its core.
Some also feels that this is happening because of Chandler wobble. It is a phenomenon, which states that, planet’s geographic poles movement to be the reason behind the increase in rotation pace.
On the other hand, negative leap seconds would affect softwares relying on timers. The introduction of negative leap seconds would be necessary because the rate at which Earth orbits the Sun should be consistent with the measurement from atomic clocks. Softwares leaning on timers would be affected as clocks run from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60, before resting to 00:00:00 with leap seconds.
Introduction of leap seconds will change clocks from 23:59:58 to 00:00:00. Consequently this will confuse the software.
