There earth rotation it’s one of those aspects we don’t think about at all. Not only perhaps due to the lack of scientific knowledge on the merits, but also because we simply don’t realize it. We know that the Earth makes a complete rotation on its axis in just under a day and we see that it does so because we correctly associate rotation with the rising and setting of the Sun, for example.
Our planet rotates at such a high speed that if the Earth stopped suddenly the effects would be catastrophic and we would be thrown into space together with everything around us. A nightmare that scientists they raise an alarm: according to experts the Earth will “stand still” in 2029. Behind this risk is one of the biggest problems of our time: global warming.
The Earth’s rotation will slow down in 2029
In the near future all the inhabitants of the world they will lose a second of their life. This is what a new study has revealed as yet another consequence of human activity.
As we know, the hours and minutes that mark the days are determined by the earth’s rotation. The latter is not constant and can undergo slight variations, which depend both on what happens on the surface and in the nucleus. These are imperceptible changes, which nevertheless lead to the need to adjust the world’s clocks, with the addition of the so-called “leap second” once every four years.
As the rotation slows down this routine will be modified and for the first time it will be necessary to remove a second instead of adding it. From the 2029 will thus be introduced negative leap secondwhose introduction initially scheduled for 2026 has been postponed by three years.
No scientist predicted that we would get to the point of having to eliminate a leap second, evidence that something unprecedented is happening.
What does it mean there will be one second less
The negative leap second has never been tested in the past and, like all new things, it could lead to problems problems difficult to predict with certainty. According to specialists, problems could arise for satellite navigation systems, computers and financial markets.
Let’s try to give an example. If a computer does not recognize this small variation it will not be able to synchronize with the rest of the network. If the PC of an online shop and the computer of the bank record different times, clicking on the “order” button will show two actions at two different times. “One second doesn’t seem like a lot, but in today’s interconnected world it could lead to huge problems,” he said Professor Agnew in an article published on Nature. “Many systems now have software that can accept an additional second, but few allow you to remove a second.”
What are the causes of the phenomenon
How can climate change affect the Earth’s rotation? It’s easy to say. The ice melting in Greenland and Antarctica it is slowing the Earth’s angular velocity. The slowdown causes a series of chain effects, starting from the influence on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), better known as jet lagwhich has undergone periodic corrections since 1972. “The melting of glaciers changes the distribution of mass and therefore the shape of our planet, which is not a sphere but a geoid,” he explained Massimo Frezzottiglaciologist and professor at Roma Tre University.
Over the last 40 years, the speed of ice melting has increased approximately six times, which is sufficient to influence the speed of rotation of the Earth, with all the associated consequences which we still have to verify in practice. This is just one of the alarms raised by astronomers around the world. Another talks about the possibility of saying goodbye to winter due to the change in the inclination of the earth’s axis.
