Earth in a hurry to spin, scientists discover

Scientists have made a strange discovery that Earth is orbiting quicker than it has done in five decades. Our planet spun all the 28 fastest days since 1960 in the year 2020, as it completed its revolutions milliseconds faster than average, as LiveScience reported.

Though scientists count up leap seconds on average about every year-and-a-half since 1972 to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), this difference has riled up experts as the satellites and other communication devices are synced with solar time which is based on the position of the sun and stars. Because the Earth's rotation continues to accelerate, scientists are considering a negative leap second which means reducing a second instead of adding one.

The French International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) is responsible for keeping track of the official measurements of the length of day, according to time andd ate. The true length of a day is expressed by the deviation of UT1(Universal Time) from TAI (International Atomic Time) over 24 hours by the IERS scientists. UT1, or mean solar time, is based on the rotation of Earth, which is uneven.

"The accuracy of atomic clocks is extraordinary over a period of millions of years, and therefore, accurately reflects the length of a day on Earth. Due to the slowing/fasting of Earth's rotation, days can be slightly longer/shorter than 24 hours. The mass redistribution of the Earth is one of the causes for its faster rotation." Dr DK Aswal, Director of National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi told The Weather Channel.

A mass redistribution occurs due to global warming, which in turn causes the Earth to shift and spin faster on its axis, according to a study in 2015 in the journal Science Advances.

Finally, that explains all the 'no time' in 2020 for procrastinators.