Scientists panic as 1 factor means earth is spinning faster and days are getting shorter

Scientists are gearing up for a repeat of the Y2K disaster, as the Earth has begun spinning faster than expected, putting many core systems in jeopardy. The Earth naturally spins slightly quicker over summer, but this year, in particular, it is starting to catch the attention of the experts, with only the slightest change potentially causing some significant impacts.

July 10 was recorded as the shortest day of the year, in terms of time, not sunlight, lasting 1.36 milliseconds less than the full 24-hour day. The data is collected by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the US Naval Observatory, compiled by timeanddate.com, which found the marginal change. These days are set to continue to shorten, with today set to chop off 1.34 milliseconds and August 5 set to shorten by another 1.25 milliseconds.

A day is recorded as the length of time it takes to complete one full rotation around its axis, which creates the classic 24-hour cycle.

But despite days often feeling the same, in reality, Earth isn't that regular with each spin being ever so slightly different, which can add up to create some big changes over time.

The main reason for the little quirks in each day can be down to the pull of the moon on the oceans. Although the moon may seem tiny compared to the Earth, the moon's large mass has a slight pull on the Earth, which not only creates the tides but can also affect its spin.

In summer, when the moon is over the Earth's equator, that pull is exaggerated and causes the spin to be ever so slightly quicker.

Judah Levine, a physicist and a fellow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told CNN: “These fluctuations have short-period correlations, which means that if Earth is speeding up on one day, it tends to be speeding up the next day, too.”

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He added: "But that correlation disappears as you go to longer and longer intervals. And when you get to a year, the prediction becomes quite uncertain. In fact, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service doesn’t predict further in advance than a year.”

The daily change results in fractional millisecond differences, both quicker and slower, that tend to average out over a year.

However, issues began to arise when these changes added up one way or another, and this summer seems to have been a particularly quick one. When the tight margins begin to accumulate, it can play havoc on atomic clocks, which are the basis for time on many of our satellite and computer systems.

The Y2K time problem was one of the last problems that caused widespread problems when time became dislodged from our computers, as many computers couldn't process the date change from 19 to 20.

Scientists are now thinking about taking action, taking away a second from the day if the negative days continue to add up.

Levine added: “When the leap second system was defined in 1972, nobody ever really thought that the negative second would ever happen. It was just something that was put into the standard because you had to do it for completeness.

"Everybody assumed that only positive leap seconds would ever be needed, but now the shortening of the days makes (negative leap seconds) in danger of happening, so to speak.”