National Aeronautic and Space Administration will add a “leap” second today, June 30, 2015, thus this day will be longer compared to usual.
NASA explained that the reason behind the addition of extra second is because the earth’s slow movement on its axis caused by “gravitational tug of war” between the planet, the Moon, and the Sun, has produced extra two thousandths of a second.
Based on the time standard, UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), we normally have 86,400 seconds a day, but NASA will insert a leap second due to the mean solar day— a time for earth to complete its rotation, which is already 86,400.002.
In relation to this event, our time at the end of that day would be 23:50:60 to 00:00:00 instead of having 23:59:59 to 00:00:00 for the other day. This exercise is done on either June 30 or December 31, but is not yearly needed.
Leap seconds are necessary in order “to keep the two time standards [UT1 and UTC] within 0.9 seconds of each other.” Otherwise, these time standards will likely not work together.
What do you think of this? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
