You Get One Whole Extra Leap Second Today--Here's Why

Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - 13:30 in Earth & Climate

Clockoatsy40/FlickrCC by 2.0Tonight, there will be an extra second in the day, added in at midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). That’s 8:00 pm Eastern, if you want to stare at a clock and see … not much. It is just a second after all.A leap second is added on to account for the fact that a day isn’t exactly 24 hours long.The Earth’s rotation is actually slowing down. On average, a day is 2 milliseconds longer than 24 hours. The gravitational pull of the moon and the sun are acting like a brake, slowing it down just a little bit over time, but other aspects of the Earth also affect the rotation of the planet. Things like the seasons, changes in the Earth's core, the amount of ice in the ice caps, and even weather events like El Niño can cause changes in the amount of...

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