That was fast! Shortest day ever on Earth

PLANET Earth has recorded its shortest day since records began.

The 1.5 milliseconds shaved off the usual 24-hour spin on June 2 raises the prospect of a leap second having to occur to keep clocks aligned. This would be the first time global clocks have been sped up.

The Earth’s rotation has been known to slow down, with 27 leap seconds needed to keep atomic time accurate since the 1 70s. The last was on New Year’s Eve 2016, when clocks paused for a second to allow the Earth to catch up.

But since 2020 that phenomenon has reversed – the previous fastest day was -1.47 milliseconds on July 1 that year. Humans can’t detect the change, but it could affect satellites and navigation systems.

Experts say the ‘Chandler Wobble’ – a change in the spin of the Earth on its axis – may be to blame. Dr Leonid Zotov, of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow, said: ‘ The normal wobble amplitude is about four metres at Earth’s surface, but from 2017 to 2020 it disappeared.’