The Earth does not rotate in a totally uniform manner. The Earth’s rotation slows down over time, increasing the duration of the day by around 1.8 milliseconds every century on average. This suggests that a day only lasted 21 hours 600 million years ago. The variations in day length are caused by a number of reasons, including the Moon’s and Sun’s tidal effects, core-mantle coupling within the Earth, and the planet’s total mass distribution.

A stunning discovery was made by scientists in the year 2020. They discovered that, rather than slowing down, the Earth has begun to rotate faster. It is now spinning at a faster rate than it has been in the previous 50 years. In fact, the 28 days with the shortest duration on record all happened in the year 2020. Scientists are still unsure what is causing the increase in Earth’s rotation rate, although some speculate that it may be related to the melting of glaciers throughout the twentieth century or the accumulation of vast amounts of water in the northern hemisphere reservoirs.

But, for the time being, should we be concerned? Although it will have no impact on our daily lives, it could have major repercussions for technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, smartphones, laptops, and communication networks, which all rely on extremely precise timing systems. However, such issues can be solved in the end, perhaps by simply deleting a leap second rather than adding one. So, unless the shortening of the day is due to human activities, we shouldn’t be concerned.