Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy (almost) new year

I find this really entertaining and possibly concerning. What if your job was determining when to add a second to the world's time? And is the Earth's rotation really slowing down? Should I be concerned about this?

Just a second: 2008 needs one more before it ends

December 29, 2008

On New Year's Eve, a "leap second" will be added to the world's clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time, the U.S. Naval Observatory announced.

For Minnesotans, that corresponds to 5:59:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on Wednesday, just in case you want to adjust your own clocks accordingly.

The extra second will be inserted at the observatory's Master Clock Facility in Washington, marking the 24th leap second since 1972 to be added to UTC, a uniform time scale kept by atomic clocks around the world.

The leap second is necessary because the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down. Leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years, with the most recent being inserted on Dec. 31, 2005.

The observatory's mission includes determining the position and motion of the Earth, sun, moon, planets, stars and other celestial objects, providing astronomical data, determining precise time and measuring the Earth's rotation.

Paul Walsh, Star Tribune

2 comments:

anne said...

I had wondered about this - setting the atomic clock. Leave it to reforming observer insomniac to provide the answer. :)

Rachel said...

You know how Dad enjoys the atomic clock. I must find that article to send to him.

Also, I AM concerned about the notion of the earth's rotation slowing down. WTF?