logo
Today will be one of the shortest days in history. Here's why

Today will be one of the shortest days in history. Here's why

Yahoo4 days ago
The Earth will complete a full rotation at a faster rate than usual today, according to Space.com.
The planet's rotation will be approximately 1.34 milliseconds less than the usual 24 hours we are used to. Although you won't be able to feel the difference, the shortened day is part of a recent trend in the planet's rotation that scientists have not been able to pinpoint the cause of, according to Space.com.
The invention of the atomic clock in 1973 allowed scientists to begin recording the speed of the rotation of the Earth through exact atomic frequencies, as opposed to regular manufactured clocks which are prone to slight errors, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's website.
From 1973 to 2020, the shortest day ever recorded was only 1.05 milliseconds shorter than 24 hours, Space.com reads. Since 2020, however, the Earth has repeatedly broken its own speed record since then, with the shortest day ever recorded being July 5, 2024 at 1.66 milliseconds shy of 24 hours.
The shortest day in 2025 was July 10, at 1.36 milliseconds short of 24 hours. July 22 is expected to finish out the year as the second shortest day, according to Space.com.
If this trend continues, scientists may need to subtract a second from the atomic clock by 2029, Space.com reads.
Although scientists haven't been able to determine the exact cause of the rotation, a 2024 study suggests melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels might be affecting Earth's spin. Another theory is that something in the Earth's core is influencing the Earth's rotation, according to Space.com.
More News
Read the original article on MassLive.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The Real Reason Hydrogen Fuel Isn't More Popular
The Real Reason Hydrogen Fuel Isn't More Popular

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

The Real Reason Hydrogen Fuel Isn't More Popular

In the effort to reduce climate change and eliminate the abundance of fossil fuels, one particular element has been identified as so promising that it could be the future of clean fuels. That element is hydrogen. Earth has a massive supply of hydrogen. It can be burned in the same way we use oil or gas, but instead of polluting the air, it only emits water. So if there is plenty of it and it's so clean, why isn't it more popular? There's no chemical element more abundant than hydrogen in the universe, but it's still difficult to obtain in a pure and ready-to-use form. To use it in the same way we use oil and gas, we must manufacture it. The problem is that the manufacturing process itself usually releases significant climate-warming emissions. There is little point in using clean hydrogen energy if the process to create it negates its benefits. Read more: What's Happening To Earth Right Now Can't Be Explained By Climate Models The Problems With Manufacturing Hydrogen Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), shows that 96% of hydrogen fuel production around the world uses fossil fuels -- releasing at least nine tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per ton of hydrogen, and even up to twelve tons. The various production processes used impact the levels of CO₂ emitted. Most of the hydrogen used today -- including around 95% of projects in the U.S. -- is known as gray hydrogen; made by breaking down natural gas using high heat. While this process does produce hydrogen, it also releases about 12 kilograms of CO₂ for every single kilogram of hydrogen. A cleaner option is blue hydrogen, which uses the same method but adds carbon capture technology to trap some of the emissions. Even then, it still releases three to five kilograms of CO₂ per kilogram of hydrogen. As part of a team researching new ways of creating hydrogen, without direct CO₂ emissions, Professor Graham Hutchings of Cardiff University stated, "Finding sustainable ways of creating the products we need for everyday life and to meet net zero ambitions for the future is a key challenge facing the chemical industry. Hydrogen is widely regarded as one way of achieving these ambitions because it is made from natural gas. However, it is extremely energy intensive and, of course, when created through traditional methods, it produces large amounts of carbon dioxide limiting its environmental benefits." Research Into Cleaner Ways To Produce Hydrogen One potential process which would be safer for our climate, is an option referred to as green hydrogen. This utilizes clean and renewable energy, like wind or solar power, to manufacture the hydrogen. The process can emit one kilogram or less of harmful emissions, which is significantly less than the current processes in place for gray and blue hydrogen. Researching the concept at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Initiative, a key stumbling block is the cost of the electrolyzers that are used to split the hydrogen from water. Furthermore, wind and solar power aren't reliable enough for a continuous manufacturing process. That leaves the options of either stopping production when conditions are not ideal, or having to rely on more traditional methods of producing hydrogen, which is counterintuitive. Principal research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, Emre Gençer, explained, "If we get cheaper electrolyzers, you will definitely see more green hydrogen coming online ... The reason we are talking about hydrogen today [is] because there are hard to abate sectors with electrification or other decarbonization options, and that's why we see hydrogen as a solution. But that completely depends on how clean our hydrogen production is." Read the original article on BGR. Solve the daily Crossword

Scientist Suggests Tests to See if Large Object Headed Toward Earth Could Be an Alien Spacecraft
Scientist Suggests Tests to See if Large Object Headed Toward Earth Could Be an Alien Spacecraft

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Scientist Suggests Tests to See if Large Object Headed Toward Earth Could Be an Alien Spacecraft

Earlier this month, astronomers made a fascinating discovery: a mysterious object with interstellar origins, now dubbed 3I/ATLAS, that's hurtling toward the inner solar system at extreme speeds. As scientists race to get a better understanding of the rare visitor — it's only the third confirmed interstellar object to have ventured into our solar system — some intriguing theories have emerged. One particularly eyebrow-raising possibility beyond the mainstream suggestions of it being either a comet or an asteroid, as championed by Harvard astronomer and alien hunter Avi Loeb, is that 3I/ATLAS could have been sent by an intelligent, extraterrestrial civilization. In a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper, Loeb analyzed the possibility that the object is "alien technology," highlighting its unusual trajectory and what he says may be attempts to brake itself to have a closer look at Earth and Jupiter. (He also emphasized that it might just be a comet or space rock.) "The orbital path of 3I/ATLAS has some very unlikely combination of characteristics, which could quite easily have been simple coincidence, as extremely strange as that ostensibly appears," the paper reads. But Loeb — who previously wrote an entire book about the possibility that 'Oumuamua, an interstellar object first observed in 2017, may have been sent to us by an alien civilization — and his colleagues stopped far short of concluding the latest discovery was an alien probe. In the paper, they argued that "this paper is largely a pedagogical exercise" and that "by far the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet." As Swinburne University of Technology lecturer Sara Webb argued in a piece for The Conversation, the idea that the intriguing object could have an extraterrestrial origin is an intriguing hypothesis, and shouldn't be discarded. "The idea of alien probes wandering the cosmos may sound strange, but humans sent out a few ourselves in the 1970s," Webb wrote, pointing out that "both Voyager 1 and 2 have officially left our Solar System, and Pioneer 10 and 11 are not far behind." "So it's not a stretch to think that alien civilisations — if they exist — would have launched their own galactic explorers," she concluded. However, figuring out whether 3I/ATLAS is indeed an alien probe coming to visit our system isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. According to Webb, we'd start out by checking if the object has a "tail" like comets do. Other than that, we could "look for signs of electrostatic discharge caused by sunlight hitting the probe" or "any kind of radio waves coming from the probe as a form of communication." But in the absence of any clear indications that 3I/ATLAS is an alien visitor, Webb agrees with Loeb that, as intriguing as the alternative may be, there's a very good chance we're looking at a comet: a celestial wad of ice, dust, and rock. "For now, 3I/ATLAS is likely just an unusually fast, old and icy visitor from a distant system," Webb concluded. "But it also serves as a test case: a chance to refine the way we search, observe and ask questions about the universe." More on the object: Astronomer Says the Object Approaching Us From Beyond the Solar System Is Not What We Think Solve the daily Crossword

NASA satellite captured two solar eclipses in one day
NASA satellite captured two solar eclipses in one day

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

NASA satellite captured two solar eclipses in one day

NASA's eye on the Sun took a little break on Friday, to watch two different solar eclipses throughout the day. The Solar Dynamics Observatory is parked out in geosynchronous orbit above North America, keeping its cameras trained on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. It's mission: to keep us in the loop on solar activity, including sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. This immense solar filament tore itself away from the Sun's surface in August 2012, becoming a coronal mass ejection as it expanded out into space. (NASA SDO) On July 25, 2025, that mission was briefly interrupted — twice, in fact — as two other objects blocked the satellite's view of the Sun. Starting around 2:40 UTC on Friday (10:40 p.m. EDT Thursday), the orbits of SDO and the Moon synced up, producing a partial solar eclipse as the Moon crossed SDO's field of view. A partial solar eclipse viewed only from space, courtesy SDO's 171 Angstrom filtered view, which captures extreme ultraviolet light to visualize the activity going on in the Sun's lower atmosphere, including the immense coronal loops that extend away from the surface. The Moon's disk took roughly an hour, from around 2:40-3:40 UTC, to pass across the Sun. (NASA SDO/Scott Sutherland) These transits typically occur around the date of the New Moon, when the Moon is nearly or exactly in between the Sun and Earth. However, they rely heavily on the exact orientation of SDO's orbit in relation to the Moon's tilted orbit around Earth. According to NASA, during this 'lunar transit', the Moon covered 62 per cent of the solar disk at maximum. This was the fourth time since April that the Moon passed in front of the Sun from SDO's point of view. It was also the deepest transit so far in 2025 — 23 per cent of the Sun was covered during the April 27 pass, while on April 28, the Moon covered only 2 per cent, and on May 25, it covered only 4 per cent of the Sun's disk. Hours later, as SDO continued on its orbit around Earth, the planet itself got in the way of its operations, as it completely filled the satellite's field view. Two frames from SDO's cameras capture the closest point to when the Earth eclipsed the spacecraft's view of the Sun and when that eclipse ended. Small inset views show computer renderings of the satellite and what its view of the Sun was at that time. (NASA SDO/Scott Sutherland) From roughly 6:30 UTC to after 8:00 UTC (2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. EDT on Friday), the Sun disappeared behind Earth. Unlike the crisp-edged eclipse produced by the Moon, the presence of Earth's atmosphere results in a much more hazy edge in SDO's images. SDO has roughly two 'eclipse seasons' per year, and is currently in its 31st since the mission launched. It begain on July 10, and will last until August 7. During that time, periodic 'blackouts' of solar imagery occur as the Earth gets in the way. This is the only time, so far, this year that SDO saw eclipses from both the Moon and Earth in the same day, though. Watch below: What is Space Weather? (Out of this World) Click here to view the video

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store