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If you don’t like adjusting your clocks twice a year for daylight saving time, you won’t like the latest news from the world of science.
For the first time in history, the world’s timekeepers may have to consider subtracting one second from our clocks in the coming years, as the Earth is spinning a little faster than before. Around 2029, clocks may have to skip what’s called a “negative leap second,” according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,” said study lead author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. “This is not a major change in the Earth’s rotation that would cause a catastrophe or anything, but it is noteworthy. This is another sign that we are in very unusual times.”
Scientists say melting ice at the Earth’s poles is hampering the planet’s explosive speed, potentially causing the global second hand to be delayed by about three years. Agnew said.
“We’re heading towards a negative leap second,” said Dennis McCarthy, former U.S. Naval Observatory time director who was not involved in the study. “It’s just a matter of when.”
Earth’s speed is accelerating because its hot liquid core (a “big ball of molten fluid”) interacts in unpredictable ways with changing eddies and currents, Agnew said. Ta.
Without the effects of melting ice, Agnew calculated that Earth would need a negative leap second in 2026 instead of 2029.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
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