Category: 7. Science

Today will be one of the shortest days of the year, all because Earth’s spin is inexplicably speeding up.

While the hours of daylight certainly last longer in the summer, the full day of 9 July 2025 will be 1.3 milliseconds shorter than average.

It takes our planet 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, to make one full rotation around its axis, though this rate does fluctuate by a tiny amount. To track these changes, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) continuously measures the length of the day to a high level of accuracy.

In 2020, the IERS noticed our planet was speeding up, and has been getting steadily faster ever since.

Their data predicts this year’s shortest days are set to fall on 9 July, 22 July and 5 August, when the Moon is furthest from the equator.

The Moon has always subtly affected our planet’s spin through tidal braking, where the Moon’s gravitational pull causes our planet to bulge.

As well as creating the tides, this deformation slowly leaches away momentum from Earth’s rotation, causing our planet to slow down by around 2 milliseconds per century.

This means that for the dinosaurs of the Triassic Era 200 million years ago, a day was just under 23 hours long. Meanwhile, in another 200 million years, the day will have extended to 25 hours long.

The IERS will occasionally add a leap second to the year to make sure high-precision clocks run on time. The most recent leap second was added on December 31, 2016.

When the Moon is further from the equator, the breaking effect isn’t as strong and so these days are a tiny bit longer. However, the times being seen in recent years are a full half millisecond shorter than those seen prior to 2020.

While some events have been known to change Earth’s rotation – the 9.0 Japan earthquake in 2011 shortened the day by 1.8 microseconds – no one knows what’s causing the current trend.

The slowing won’t have any catastrophic effect on our planet – it’s far too short for anyone to notice – it did result in the IERS choosing to skip a leap second in 2025, and may have to take one back in 2029.

Whatever the cause, this is unlikely to be an ongoing effect, and our planet will eventually return to its long-term pattern of winding down.

Read more:

Researchers found that specialized cells in Burmese pythons’ (Python bivittatus) intestinal lining process calcium from the bones of their meals. This helps explain how these predators digest whole prey.

The team published its findings June 25 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

CRISPR is now steering fresh new advancements in agriculture, particularly in combating Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening, a disease that continues to devastate the global citrus industry.

After years of comprehensive study, [Dr. Nian] Wang’s team has identified about 40 potential genetic targets thought to influence citrus immune responses and oxidative stress when under attack by the HLB-causing bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas).

CRISPR technology is opening doors to a brighter future for the citrus industry. Moving forward, Wang says new research will focus on efficiently integrating disease-resistance genes into citrus plants without adding non-citrus sequences. 

…

Although the road ahead is long, CRISPR offers immense promise in helping the citrus industry recover from one of its greatest challenges to date. With continued research and collaboration, genetically edited citrus could soon become a standard tool in the fight against HLB, helping to rejuvenate the battered global citrus markets.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here

A strange glow spotted on Saturn’s surface has triggered a wave of excitement and confusion within the astronomy community. On July 5, 2025, amateur astronomer and NASA employee Mario Rana captured footage that appears to show a mysterious object crashing into the gas giant. If confirmed, this would be the first-ever recorded impact event on Saturn, a planet known for its turbulent atmosphere but elusive when it comes to visible cosmic collisions. Now, both professional and amateur astronomers are racing to analyze the footage and gather more data in hopes of solving this rare celestial puzzle.

Saturn’s elusive collisions make this discovery stand out

Unlike rocky planets like Earth or Mars, Saturn’s outer layer is made of gas, primarily hydrogen and helium. This makes it extremely difficult to observe visible signs of impact, like craters. But on July 5, a faint flash on the left side of the planet was caught in video footage during routine observation by Mario Rana. The brief glow resembled an atmospheric entry or explosion, prompting widespread speculation that a comet or asteroid may have struck Saturn.

Why this event is unusual

Studies suggest that large objects more than a kilometer wide hit Saturn roughly once every 3,000 years. While smaller meteoroids may collide with the gas giant more frequently, about 7 or 8 times a year, such impacts are rarely, if ever, directly observed. Unlike Jupiter, where previous impacts have been captured and analyzed, Saturn’s dense atmosphere tends to absorb and obscure evidence before scientists can confirm it.

Global astronomers asked to help confirm Saturn impact

The potential impact is now under review by PVOL (Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory), which includes a network of professional and amateur astronomers. They have issued a public call for footage taken between 9:00 and 9:15 AM UT on July 5, 2025, urging astronomers worldwide to share any video or image data. Professor Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester amplified the appeal, noting that amateur footage could be crucial to verifying this rare event.Until more data is gathered, the flash remains officially unconfirmed. However, projects like DeTeCt, which uses software to scan planetary footage for possible impacts, will continue to analyze submissions. If verified, this could be a breakthrough moment for planetary science, offering insights into how often large objects strike the gas giants in our solar system and how these planets absorb such impacts.