Year 2009 Delayed by One Second

Posted by Prem Godara | 12/31/2008 11:51:00 PM | | 0 comments »

As the year 2008 is coming to end, there is a delay in the begin of 2009. Yes, 2009 is gonna be delayed by one second. There is one more second given for us to enjoy in 2008 which is called as Leap Second. On December 31, the planet's official timekeepers will add a “leap second” to the Coordinated Universal Time Scale (UTC) followed around the world. The additional second makes up for the difference in two clocks – one based on Earth’s rotation and the other on the more precise atomic time of the UTC. The extra second was mandated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) in Paris, and is not to be taken lightly.

Can we just imagine that we have 24 hours and 1 second in a day. One second is not a small thing as some people think. The worth of a second can be better explained by a person who got second place in a 200 meters running by missing his first place in a second delay.

In the U.S., the extra second will be added by the U.S. Naval Observatory at 6:59:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (11:59:59 p.m. Universal time). It will be the 24th “leap second” tacked on to the universal time scale since 1972. To keep the time scales within 0.9 seconds of each other, the IERS Service, which tracks the differences between the clocks, periodically inserts or subtracts a second to Universal time. The last one was added on New Year’s Eve three years ago.

Lets Welcome 2009 one second later or rather I can be optimistic by saying an extra second is been gifted in 2008. Happy new year!!



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