Second shortest day on the Earth 2025: The planet will spin faster than usual on July 22, but why is this unusual change happening?
Still, scientists around the world are paying very close attention to these tiny changes.
But why is this observation important?
This observation, according to scientists, is crucial because it can signal towards deeper shifts happening beneath our feet, in Earth's core, oceans, and even the atmosphere. These changes could affect everything from how we keep time to how we understand the planet's inner workings. Recent observations are showing that Earth is spinning a little faster than usual, and that might soon lead to an adjustment in our official timekeeping systems.
Earth is spinning faster than usual!
Today, July 22, 2025, Earth is expected to spin just a little faster than usual, skipping about 1.34 milliseconds off the usual 24-hour day. According to data from the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the US Naval Observatory, this will make it the second-shortest day of the year so far, after July 10, which was timed at 1.36 milliseconds shorter than a standard day.
To most of us, that change is impossible to notice, but it's getting the attention of scientists worldwide.
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According to TimeandDate.com, which regularly reports on Earth's timekeeping data, this is not the first time that any of this has happened.
What will happen if the Earth's rotation time shortens?
A strange pattern has been developing in recent years where Earth is rotating slightly faster, and some experts believe this trend may continue.
If it does, we could be facing a surprising milestone in the world of timekeeping, and it could also lead to the removal of a second from atomic clocks by 2029.
What's causing Earth to speed up?
According to a 2023 study published in the journal Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, Earth's days were shorter billions of years ago, just 19 hours long, because of gravitational pulls from the Sun and Moon on Earth's oceans and atmosphere. Over time, the Moon has been slowly drifting away, which usually causes Earth to spin more slowly, not faster.
Experts believe factors like movement in Earth's core, changes in ocean currents, and atmospheric patterns could be speeding up the rotation at least temporarily.
These internal and external movements all have slight impacts that can either slow down or speed up the planet's spin.
Image Credit: AI Generated
Are there any more short days ahead?
For 2025, scientists had predicted that July 9, July 22, and August 5 would likely be the shortest days of the year. But as new data came in, it turns out that July 10 was the shortest day so far, and it ran about 1.36 milliseconds shorter than the usual 24 hours.
Now, July 22 is expected to come very close, with the day being 1.34 milliseconds shorter than normal. That would make today the second-shortest day of the year. While we can't feel the difference, these tiny shifts are being watched very closely.
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