The planet’s rotation fluctuates as it travels around the sun, and measurements suggest we’re losing more than a millisecond during the long days of summer.

As Earth spins faster than it has in decades, atomic clocks are catching the difference, and shorter days are on the horizon.

When the moon is positioned farther from Earth's equator and closer to the poles, its pull on the planet becomes weaker. With less resistance, Earth is able to spin a bit faster, which makes the day slightly shorter than usual.