They say everything changed in 2020: global pandemics, lockdowns, banana bread, and an entire planet discovering what sourdough starter is.
But perhaps we weren’t the only ones losing our minds: turns out, Earth started spinning faster too.
Yes, you read that right. Since 2020, our planet has slightly increased its rotational speed. Each day has become a few milliseconds shorter. Barely noticeable, sure. But just enough for scientists to say: “Hmm, interesting…” and for us to say: “Even the planet’s burned out.”
🌀 Spoiler: It’s only a few milliseconds. But your microwave probably noticed. You didn’t.
📉 How Much Faster Are We Talking?
On average, Earth takes about 86,400 seconds to complete one rotation — what we call a "day."
But in 2020 and 2021, we recorded the shortest days since the 1960s, when atomic clocks started tracking Earth’s rotation with high precision.
🔍 The Record?
🗓️ July 19, 2020 → 1.4602 milliseconds shorter than usual.
(The time it takes to type “What’s a millisecond?” into Google.)
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🔬 Why Is Earth Spinning Faster?
The Responsible Adult Version
Let’s get serious (for a moment). Scientists propose several real-world causes for this accelerated earth rotation:
Movements in Earth's Core
Our molten metal core isn’t exactly a Swiss watch.
Shifts down there = surface speed changes up here.
🧊 Melting Ice Caps
Less ice means a shift in mass distribution. Think of it like an ice skater pulling their arms in — they spin faster.
🌍 Earthquakes and Tectonic Shifts
Major quakes can alter Earth’s mass and slightly change its axis of rotation. Just a nudge, but measurable.
🌕 Lunar Influence & Ocean Tides
Yes, the Moon again. Romantic, but a gravitational drama queen.
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Why Is Earth Spinning Faster?
The 2020+ Human Edition
Let’s embrace the absurdity. If science isn’t enough, here are a few alternative explanations:
🧑💻 Too many Zoom calls
A global overload of webcam energy bent the fabric of spacetime.
🕺 TikTok dances triggered a torsion wave
Millions of bodies gyrating at once. The Earth felt peer pressure.
🚀 Elon Musk gave it a push
He launched a Tesla into orbit. Maybe he nudged the equator too.
😐 Planetary boredom
Maybe Earth just wanted to fast-forward the season finale.
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☢️ Catastrophic Consequences… or Not
So what happens if our days get shorter?
Nothing. Or almost nothing.
Physicists just tweak things using the leap second — a tiny time adjustment we occasionally add to our clocks. But if Earth keeps this up, we may have to remove a second instead.
⏱️ Cue atomic clock anxiety, smartwatch meltdowns, and general chaos in the timekeeping world.
🐱 Cats, as always, remain completely unbothered.
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😅 Should We Be Worried?
Not at all. But it’s a great excuse to laugh.
Maybe Earth is just doing a little orbital detox. In 2020, it saw us lose our minds, reduced its carbon intake, and started speeding away — just a bit.
At this rate, in about 1.5 million years, we’ll gain a whole extra hour.
Enough time for a slow brunch.
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🧘♀️ The Moral of the Story?
Maybe Earth is trying to shake us off.
But don’t worry: it only sped up by a millisecond.
It’ll take much more than that to get rid of us.
Bonus: Random Nerd Facts to Impress at Dinner
- Earth was slowing down, now it’s speeding up again.
- The 24-hour day is mostly a human construct.
- Atomic clocks are so precise, they err by just 1 second every 100 million years.
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