Earth's days mysteriously getting longer; scientists struggle to find reason

Earth's days mysteriously getting longer; scientists struggle to find reason

According to the study, the main reason behind the slowing down of Earth’s rotation is friction.

Scientists have claimed that days on earth are getting longer but they have not found any concrete reason behind the phenomenon. The observation came as a surprise as June 2022 saw the shortest day in almost half a century. With the Earth’s rotation around its axis speeding up in the past few decades, the days were supposed to get shorter with time. However, the trend seems to have reversed once again and from 2020, steady rise in the length of days was observed by the scientists.

The length of a day has a number of significant implications – ranging from how time is measured to various modern technologies like GPS. As a result, scientists are trying to find the reasons behind this sudden change and how the trend completely changed despite the speed of the planet’s rotation.

According to the study, the main reason behind the slowing down of Earth’s rotation is friction. With the effects of the friction taking place over millions of years, the rotation of the axis has slowed down and as a result, it has added around 2.3 milliseconds to the length of each day every century.

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While climate change also had an effect on the rotation, the scientists found that the impact was not that significant, and the tidal changes have increased the length of day by up to a millisecond.

With the study going public, a number of people have been asking for a "negative leap second" in order to balance out the increase but no such request was considered by the authorities.

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