SAN ANTONIO — The Earth is constantly rotating. But that rotation isn't constant and it's changing speed could force us to adapt when it comes to time. When the Earth slows down in it's rotation we have to add a leap second. That happens about every few years. But, what about when it speeds up?
THE QUESTION
Because the Earth is speeding up, will we will have to add a negative leap second in the very near future.
THE SOURCES
- Dr. David Wood, a professor of astronomy at San Antonio College
- Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego
THE ANSWER
TRUE
WHAT WE FOUND
Dr. Wood says because the Earth has sped up just a tad, it has introduced a little wobble.
"It gets these little wobbles and it gets a little bit faster. And so that's where the idea of maybe we might need to introduce a negative leap second in here, just to account for the fact that Earth is kind of spun up its rotation a little bit more than typical in the last few years," Wood said.
Agnew agreed and in a recent press statement said..."If you look at changes in the Earth's rotation, which is the reason for leap seconds, and break down what causes these changes, it looks like a negative one is quite likely. One second doesn't sound like much, but in today's interconnected world, getting the time wrong could lead to huge problems."
So yes, it is true. Because the Earth is speeding up, we will likely have to add a negative leap second in the very near future. At this point the experts say the negative leap second would likely be added sometime in 2028 or 2029.