In a surprising new development, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have revealed that the 8.8. magnitude earthquake that recently hit Chile had managed to change the length of the day, and also shifted the way the Earth moves.

The effects, however, were not noticed by anyone.

The reason why scientists reached at the conclusion that the Earth changed the way it rotates is because our planet apparently does not spin perfectly, rather it wobbles a bit. "The consequence of that is that the rotation pole actually moves, and it moves over the area about the size of a tennis court", said Richard O'Connell at Harvard University.

The phenomenon is called the Chandler wobble, and in the 1970s, O'Connell had written a paper that revealed how large-scale earthquakes tend to keep kicking the Earth, and this manages to keep the Earth wobbling.

The earthquake that rocked Chile on Saturday was the fifth strongest ever recorded, according to the USGS.