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.

July 9 will be one of the shortest days ever, as Earth is spinning faster and scientists are still working to understand why. According to the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) the organization that continuously measures Earth's orientation in space and the length of days, our planet has been speeding up since 2020.