2005 to be one second longer
July 8, 2005This year, 2005, will be one second longer than any year since 1998. Nature reports that a leap second is being added to account for changes in the earth's rotation.
Leap seconds have been added since the 1970s when scientists noticed that atomic clocks and the astronomical clock of the earth's rotation do not always match up. Markus Kuhn of Cambridge University said that the gravitational pull of the sun and moon can change the rotation by causing shifts in the earth's core, and major earthquakes can do the same thing.
A total of 32 seconds have already been added over the decades, making the year just over half a minute longer.
The leap seconds are different from the days added every four years because the earth actually takes about 365 1/4 days to move around the sun.
Kuhn said that most computers will not have trouble dealing with the extra second, which will be added sometime in the final hours of Dec. 31.
Asked how he would spend the extra time, Kuhn told Nature, "I might do a very geeky thing and watch how my computer behaves."
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
-
Experts say Gingrich moon base dreams not lunacy
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (12) |
42
-
Bus-sized asteroid shaves by Earth
Jan 28, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (21) |
21
-
Can solar flares hurt astronauts?
Jan 24, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
0
-
Biggest solar storm since 2005 pummels Earth
Jan 23, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (11) |
8
-
Scientists describe new species of crab that "farms" methane vents
Dec 03, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (14) |
8
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
More news stories
NASA sees wide-eyed cyclone Jasmine
Cyclone Jasmine's eye has opened wider on NASA satellite imagery, as it moves through the Southern Pacific Ocean.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
50 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
NASA sees Giovanna reach cyclone strength, threaten Madagascar
Tropical Storm 12S built up steam and became a cyclone on February 10, 2012 as NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead. Residents of east-central Madagascar should prepare for this cyclone to make landfall ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
49 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...
12 hours ago |
4.2 / 5 (6) |
10
|
Could Venus be shifting gear?
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
8 hours ago |
5 / 5 (7) |
7
|
Clam fields found at deep, low-temperature Mariana vents
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have marveled at the unusual life forms thriving at high temperature hydrothermal vents of the deep ocean.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
9 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets
Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.
CIA website offline, Anonymous takes credit
The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was unresponsive on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.
Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...
Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a phase change in the liquid state, abruptly ...
The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males
A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...
