Time lords prepare to kick leap seconds into the next millennium
Risk of an unprecedented negative adjustment prompts plan to let UTC drift by as much as an hour..
Risk of an unprecedented negative adjustment prompts plan to let UTC drift by as much as an hour.
The short version
- Next month, the General Conference on Weights and Measures is set to vote on effectively calling time on leap seconds.
- A draft resolution [PDF] would make Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) continuous from May 20, 2027, and allow the difference between UTC and UT1, a measure of time based on Earth's rotation, to reach as much as one hour.
- Leap seconds keep UTC, which is based on atomic clocks, within 0.9 seconds of time determined by the slightly wobbly rotation of our home planet.
What happened
Since the system was introduced in 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added to UTC. The urgency comes partly from a slight increase in Earth's rotational speed in recent years, raising the possibility of an adjustment never attempted before: a negative leap second.
Why it matters
Experts convened by international timekeeping bodies estimated a 30 percent probability that one would be needed by 2035.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at The Register — Networks via the links above and below.