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Loree Alderisio on July 22, 2025

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Something strange is happening to our planet — Earth is spinning faster than ever, and scientists aren’t sure why.

In a surprising twist, our days are getting just a little bit shorter. Around July 22 and August 5, 2025, Earth is completing a full rotation up to 1.6 milliseconds faster than usual. That may not sound like much, but in the world of timekeeping, it’s record-breaking. Atomic clocks, which are the most precise tools we have, confirm that July 11 was the shortest day of the year so far, and possibly one of the shortest ever recorded.

This unusual speed-up was first noticed in 2020 and has continued into this year. Scientists are tracking the trend, but no one has a full explanation yet.

One idea is that it’s being caused by shifting movements deep inside the planet. Changes in the molten core, ocean currents, and high-altitude winds could all be playing a part. The Moon’s position this month may also be a factor. When it's tilted far from Earth’s equator, the planet spins a bit faster. But even combined, these things don’t fully explain what’s going on.

Leonid Zotov, a scientist at Moscow State University, put it simply: “Nobody expected this. Even the best models can’t explain it.”

Though the time difference is tiny, it matters more than you might think. Systems like GPS, satellite communication, and internet data centers all rely on incredibly precise timing. If Earth keeps speeding up, scientists may have to do something that’s never been done before — subtract a second from global clocks. That so-called “negative leap second” could happen as soon as 2029.

For now, the cause behind Earth’s faster spin remains a mystery — a reminder that even the passage of time isn’t as steady as it seems.

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All cyclical functioning systems have a tolerance variation range. Like the angle of the Earth axis, the yearly cycle of Earth going around the Sun, the Moon cycle going around the Earth… etc. For example no year cycle is precisely the same length of time, in minutes or even hours. No year cycle ac... View MoreAll cyclical functioning systems have a tolerance variation range. Like the angle of the Earth axis, the yearly cycle of Earth going around the Sun, the Moon cycle going around the Earth… etc. For example no year cycle is precisely the same length of time, in minutes or even hours. No year cycle actually makes it to a full complete 366 days, but we still have in our calendar years that considered as actuality make it at 366 days, even when actually in a cyclical Function there is no add up of the error margin of some given measurement. So the few hours over the the full precise 365 day measurement of the yearly cycle, as an error margin, do not add up as a cumulative over time. But somehow we still have a calendar which somehow tries to compensate over time for such a given. And regardless of ability to actually know or not the reason behind, for each and every case of such cyclical function behaviour, it actually is a natural given. There is not an absolute precise cyclical function. Even more so while the method and the mechanisms of measurement carry their own error tolerance margin… especially when considering the cycle measurement of large planetary bodies like Earth. Atomic clocks or no atomic clocks, still there will be an error tolerance, a quite significant one even with the best atomic clocks and even in the case of variation comparisons over time, as the instant synchronicity between two points in time and or two points in space in consideration of such measurements can not be achieved. So any detectable variability in the measurement which is within the range of error tolerance of the measurement actually mean not much for not saying nothing at all. My understanding is that all measurements that deal with the length of the day, in very very high precision manner, do not take in account either the instrumental measurement error tolerance nor the error tolerance of the actual natural function under measurement scrutiny. Mostly results of such measurements are publicised as bombastic findings, with no regard of the lack of ability to actually measure precisely and accurately at that given resolution scale, and mostly these are results pulled out of models feed with a large number of actual measurements, measurements that in their own will not show any actual detection of what proclaimed. Again any detected variation that consists as smaller in value than the error tolerance of a given functioning system or and in the same time also smaller than the error tolerance of the instrumental measurements, has no any actual meaning. That goes for atomic clock measurements too.

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1 July 22, 2025 Edited