Shortest day on Earth since the 1960s
As of June 29, Earth completed one full rotation – a day – in just 1.59 milliseconds less than its usual 24-hour period.
As the idiom goes, time flies and recent evidence suggests this is literally true. Today, tomorrow often comes sooner – albeit by a fraction of a second. The Earth completed one full rotation on June 29 in 1.59 milliseconds less than its usual 24 hours. Scientists first began measuring the Earth’s rotational speed with precise atomic clocks in the 1960s, when it was the shortest day recorded.
Recent years have seen the Earth spinning slightly faster – it’s been happening fairly often these days. The Earth almost broke its record set on June 29 on July 26, with the day ending 1.50 milliseconds earlier. The Earth clocked 28 of its shortest days which is recorded in 2020, when everyone was concerned about the Coronavirus, according to the website timeanddate.com. In 2020, July 19 was the shortest day – ending 1.47 milliseconds earlier than the previous day.
One millisecond equals one-thousandth of a second. As a point of comparison, a blink lasts for 100 milliseconds, which is a tenth of a second. A hundredth of a second separated P T Usha from a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. No, not really. While the Earth has been rotating faster in recent years, when viewed over a much longer period of time, our planet is spinning slower.
On average, days are getting longer as the Earth takes a few milliseconds longer to complete one rotation every century.
The Guardian reported in 2018, citing a scientific paper published that year, that 1.4 billion years ago, a day would have ended in less than 19 hours. According to the paper, the Earth’s slower rotation is mainly due to the gravitational pull of the Moon, which causes tidal friction.
Scientists aren’t sure for sure. “It is certainly odd,” said Professor Matt King of the University of Tasmania to ABC News. Something has changed, and it’s changed in a way we haven’t seen since the beginning of precise radio astronomy in the 1970s.”
A possible explanation could be climate change-induced surface variations, which impact the way the Earth spins. Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets are melting, and ocean circulation is changing.
The cause of Earth’s rotational acceleration is unknown. Christian Bizouard of the Paris Observatory at the International Astronomical Union told Chinese television CGTN, “We have only hypotheses.” He speculated that the cause was internal and related to the movement of Earth’s core.
The cause of Earth’s rotational acceleration is unknown. Christian Bizouard of the Paris Observatory at the International Astronomical Union told Chinese television CGTN, “We have only hypotheses.” He speculated that the cause was internal and related to the movement of Earth’s core.
There is some speculation that the shortening of the day has something to do with the Chandler wobble, which is a small deviation in the movement of Earth’s geographical poles. According to Dr. Leonid Zotov of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University, this wobble has recently diminished and could explain shorter days. In 2017, Dr. Zotov told timeanddate.com, “the Chandler wobble disappeared from Earth’s surface, whose normal amplitude is about three to four meters.”.
Since the 1970s, leap seconds have been used to ensure that clocks match the speed of the Earth’s rotation. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time standard used to synchronize clocks around the world, is regulated by one second. UTC has been regulated by 27 leap seconds due to the planet’s long-term slowing down. The first-ever ‘negative leap second,’ which involves subtracting a second from clocks, may have to be introduced if the Earth continues to spin faster and days become shorter.
A Meta Engineering blog post published on July 25 argued that while leap seconds benefit scientists and astronomers, they are “a major source of pain for hardware administrators .”As described in the post, an addition of a leap second had caused the website Reddit to be inaccessible for 30 to 40 minutes in 2012, and a negative leap second has never been tested on a large scale, so “it could have a devastating effect on software relying on timers or schedules.”
Do you know about the lumpy disease in cattle?
There have been nearly 3,000 cattle deaths in Rajasthan and Gujarat in the past few weeks due to Lumpy Skin Disease. The number of LSD outbreaks in Asia has increased since 2019. Do you know what the disease is and how dangerous it is?
In Rajasthan and Gujarat, nearly 3,000 cattle have died due to a viral infection called Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) that has spread across the states. During a visit to the affected areas in Kutch on Tuesday (August 3), Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reviewed the situation.
A ban on the transport of livestock out of 14 districts affected by the drought was issued by the Gujarat government on July 27. National Dairy Development Board has supplied 28 lakh doses of goat pox vaccine to Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Punjab bought from a private company called Hester Biosciences. Around 11 lakh cattle have been vaccinated against the disease. Additionally, a toll-free helpline – 1962 – has been activated to guide cattle-herders and dairy farmers.
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) reports that Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is caused by a virus called Capripoxvirus and is “an emerging threat to livestock worldwide .”There is a genetic connection between it and goatpox and sheeppox viruses.
Blood-feeding insects are the main vectors of infection for cattle and water buffalo with LSD. Circular, firm nodes on the animal’s hide or skin that resemble lumps are signs of infection.
The infected animals lose weight immediately and may have fevers and lesions in their mouths, as well as a reduced milk yield.
A strain of the virus was discovered in Maharashtra in September 2020. The disease has also been reported sporadically in Gujarat over the last few years, but the current concern is the number of deaths and whether vaccinations can keep up with the disease’s spread.
It is considered normal for India to have mortality rates between 1 and 5 percent, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). A zoonotic disease is not spread from animals to humans, so humans cannot become infected with it.
According to Prof J B Kathiriya, Assistant Professor with the department of veterinary public health and epidemiology of Kamdhenu University’s College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry in Junagadh, although the virus does not spread to humans, milk produced by infected animals will be fit for consumption after boiling or pasteurization.
According to the WOAH, LSD can be controlled and eradicated if early detection is followed by a rapid and widespread vaccination campaign. An animal that has recovered is well protected and cannot transmit the infection to other animals.
Dr. J B Kathiriya also spoke about the measures to protest the viral infection. Insecticides and disinfectant chemicals should be sprayed on cattle sheds first to eliminate vectors. Immediately isolate the infected cattle from the healthy stock and contact the nearest veterinarian for treatment. Otherwise, the virus may prove fatal.”
The state government should be notified of the outbreak so that the rest of the healthy herd can be vaccinated,” said Prof Kathiriya. On some days, cattle with healthy immune systems will recover from the disease.
The disposal of dead animals is another challenge since improper handling can lead to health and sanitation issues. According to the WOAH, proper disposal of carcasses includes incineration or burning at high temperatures, as well as disinfecting the premises.
Do you know about the military drills in China?
China holds military drills and fires missiles: China has started exercises involving warplanes, navy ships, and missile strikes in six zones around Taiwan. How does it hope to achieve its goals? Taiwan and the US have responded in what way? In what ways are tensions likely to persist, and what are the risks?
There are more ships in China’s navy than in the US, and its military has more than 2 million soldiers. Although Taiwan’s armed forces cannot compare in numbers, they have vowed to resist coercive measures to impose Chinese Communist Party rule.
The re-establishment of a stable equilibrium will require hard diplomacy, according to Stanford University political scientist Kharis Templeman. I don’t know how this confrontation will end, but I think we are in for a rocky few weeks.” The following is an overview of the issues surrounding the escalation of tensions.
In live-fire exercises, military personnel is tested on their ability to perform missions under conditions most similar to those of actual combat. Specifically, they illustrate the level of force China could release if it were to make good on its pledge to seize control of Taiwan and punish those who supported it.
It is the largest and most threatening exercise since Beijing launched missiles into waters north and south of Taiwan in 1995 and 1996 after then-President Lee Teng-hui visited the US. Taiwan’s air defense identification zone is regularly breached by China’s warplanes, and sometimes the middle line of the Taiwan Strait is crossed, but no direct incursions or attacks have taken place that could spark a regional conflict.
It is the largest and most threatening exercise since Beijing launched missiles into waters north and south of Taiwan in 1995 and 1996 after then-President Lee Teng-hui visited the US. Taiwan’s air defense identification zone is regularly breached by China’s warplanes, and sometimes the middle line of the Taiwan Strait is crossed, but no direct incursions or attacks have taken place that could spark a regional conflict.
Due to his hardline approach to COVID-19 and the marked decline in relations with the West, Xi has accumulated vast powers despite criticism of his handling of the economy.
The Taiwanese military is on alert, and civil defense drills have been conducted. Despite its small air force, navy, and 165,000-member armed forces, it has been equipped with high-tech weapons and early-warning systems to prevent a Chinese invasion.
China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also served as a wake-up call for Taipei, which is revising its training and tactics.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told US National Public Radio that “the possibility of some kind of incident exists.”
We believe that what China is doing here is not responsible. As a result, tensions are escalating unnecessarily,” Sullivan said. According to Templeman, the Stanford University political scientist, Washington, and Beijing are both seriously challenging their long-standing modus vivendi.
With high-level visits, a relaxation of official contact restrictions, and arms sales, Washington has responded to Beijing’s aggression.
According to Templeman, Washington has become less concerned about offending China and less deferential to Beijing’s demands regarding Taiwan.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
