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SALT LAKE CITY — For those who can’t wait for 2016 to end, there’s bad news. You’ll have to wait an extra second.
An extra second will be added to the Coordinated Universal Time, to help keep clocks in sync with the Earth’s rotation. In Utah, the extra second will occur at 4:59:59 p.m. MST Saturday. Clocks will officially read 4:59:60 p.m. with the extra second.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, which regulates the world time, announced that decision in June.
“It’s a relatively new thing,” said Patrick Wiggins, NASA ambassador for Utah. “I think people are probably familiar with leap days and leap years — we’ve had those around for centuries, but the leap second didn’t come around until (the 1970s). It’s been infrequently used since then, but it’s a real thing.”
According to NASA, this allows the official highly-accurate world clocks, to catch up with Earth’s slowing and inconsistent rotation.
“The rationale is, well if the Earth’s rotation isn’t constant and our clocks are — we can’t change the rotation of the Earth, so let’s change what our clocks say,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins added there have been a few uses of a leap second since it was first used.
However, nothing is certain when it will next happen since it’s used when it becomes necessary. That will be up to IERS officials and would be announced about six months before it next happens.
“We don’t know when the next one’s coming, so spend this one wisely,” he said.
