Middle Indo Pos,Jakarta – Scientists have discovered the fact that a day on Earth now lasts longer. They are still curious about the cause of this phenomenon. Quoted by Science Alert, scientists discovered this through atomic clocks combined with precise astronomical measurements. Unfortunately, the cause of this phenomenon is still mysterious.
Earth recorded its shortest day on June 29, 2022. But if you look at it long-term, its trajectory actually changes from fastest to longest. This change is unprecedented in the past 50 years. Experts do not yet know the cause.
Perhaps, this is due to changes in the weather system, with the occurrence of La Nina. Or, it could also be that the change is due to the increasing melting of the ice sheet. Scientists can only speculate on this mysterious change. They suspect that the speed of rotation of the Earth is related to a phenomenon called “Chandler Wobble” (chandler wobble).
The term is used to describe the small deviations that occur in the Earth’s rotation axis with a period of approximately 430 days. Observations from radio telescopes show that the wobble has disappeared in recent years.
Another possibility, according to experts, is that no specific changes have occurred in or around the Earth. This slowdown could simply be a long-term effect of the tides working in parallel with other periodic processes.
This causes a temporary change in the speed of the Earth’s rotation. So far, Earthlings understand that the rotation process takes 24 hours. In fact, the Earth rotates at various times.
It occurs over a period of millions of years to very short periods of time. Earthquakes and storms can also affect rotation. One example is the great earthquake in Japan’s Tohoku in 2011. With a magnitude of 8.9, it is believed to have accelerated the Earth’s rotation by just 1.8 microseconds.
Over the course of millions of years, Earth’s rotation is believed to have slowed down due to the frictional effects associated with the tides that the Moon hits. The process is believed to add about 2.3 milliseconds per day in each century.
Millions of years ago, a day on Earth was believed to last only 19 hours. But over the past 20,000 years, other processes have made the Earth’s rotation faster. What is clear is that rotation on Earth rarely lasts exactly 24 hours or 86400 seconds.
Quoted from The Conversation, understanding the rotation speed of the Earth is very important for various devices such as navigation systems such as GPS, which will not work without that rotation.
In addition, every few years, timekeepers insert a few seconds into the official time scale on Earth to ensure that the GPS remains in sync with the planet. If Earth’s days become very long, humanity may face an unprecedented “second negative leap” that will destroy the Internet.(Red)
