Can't get enough of 2016? You're in luck. Time lords at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) have announced that an extra second will be added to the end of this year. Clocks will read 23:59:60 on 31 December. Such leap seconds are occasionally needed to ensure that Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official measure of time, stays in sync with changes in Earth's rotation. UTC is defined using atomic clocks, which maintain a precise tick thanks to the consistent frequency of microwaves released by certain atoms. A day should be 86,400 atomic seconds, but Earth's rotation isn't quite this constant.
展开▼
