If, while lying down to bed yesterday, you reflected on the entire day and thought to yourself:
...take heart and don't worry, you're not crazy!
Via TIME:
If you're the kind of person who gets a lot done, you're grateful for every one of the 86,400 seconds that make up a day. On July 9, however, as well as on July 22, and August 5, you won't get your full complement of seconds. On these days the Earth will be measurably — and, so far, unaccountably — accelerating its rotation, shaving from 1.3 to 1.5 milliseconds off of the usual 24 hours the typical day gets.
I don't know about you but when someone says "The Earth is going faster and we really don't know why," I'll pretty much have one response:
But it's true! And yes, while there are "a number of reasons the Earth may be changing its speed," scientists honestly just don't know why the heck it's happening.
Some possible explanations, via Time:
Lunar effects. The three fastest days this month and next identified by scientists will also coincide with the moon's apogee, or its furthest distance from Earth. Now, normally the Earth slows down when the moon is farther away, so that's a bit of a puzzle. But also, the moon during its apogees during these months will be at its peak angle relative to the equator, and at peak angle lunar gravity "[speeds] things up, countering the braking effect that lunar apogee usually applies."
Earthquakes. A powerful-enough earthquake can really knock the Earth for a loop. For instance, "in 2005, an earthquake in Indonesia shifted the Earth's polar mass about one inch toward the east, decreasing the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds." But, as Time noted, "no significant earthquake has occurred recently."
Climate change. Haha just kidding! Nobody believes that.
Well, don't sweat it. Nothing bad seems to happen when the Earth speeds up a bit. And, honestly, scientists themselves can't decide whether it's good or bad.
Still mad my boss wouldn't let me take off work 1.5 milliseconds early, though.
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