
16/08/2025
Something truly unusual is happening to our planet and it could change how humanity measures time. By the year 2029, scientists may have to do something that has never been done before in human history. They might need to delete one second from the official global clock. This would be the first ever negative leap second, and it is all because Earth is spinning faster than normal.
Since 2020, Earth’s rotation has been gradually speeding up. Each day is now shorter by about 1.5 milliseconds. That may sound tiny, but when compared to atomic clocks, which can measure time to billionths of a second, the difference becomes significant. These atomic clocks are the gold standard for keeping Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which the world relies on for everything from GPS navigation to financial systems.
In the past, timekeepers have only added leap seconds to keep atomic time and Earth’s natural time in sync. But if our planet keeps this rapid spin, scientists will have to do the opposite and actually remove a second. Time experts at organizations like the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service are monitoring the situation closely.
What is causing Earth to pick up speed? Researchers point to changes deep in the planet’s molten core along with the redistribution of weight on the surface caused by melting polar ice. Just like a figure skater spins faster when pulling in their arms, these changes alter Earth’s momentum, making it rotate more quickly.
If this adjustment happens, it will be a historic moment in timekeeping, reminding us that even the passing of a single second is linked to the heartbeat of our living planet. The ticking of the clock is not just mechanical, it is cosmic.