Planetary Tailspin The Earth's rotation is about to accelerate significantly. According to scientists, July 9, July 22, and August 5 of this year will be some of the shortest days in years as a result, slicing well over a millisecond off the usual 24 hours, Timeanddate.com reports. July 5 That's despite the Earth's full rotation around the Sun taking almost exactly 86,400 milliseconds, the equivalent of 24 hours. The short upcoming days buck a decades-long trend. Since 1972, scientists have sliced a "leap second" from the clock a whopping 27 times thanks to a steady deceleration. Our planet's sudden — […]