News

The New Year will arrive a second later than normal, as time across the globe is adjusted to account for the changes in the Earth's rotation.

A "leap second" will be added onto the final minute of 2008 because the planet is gradually slowing down as it spins on its axis enabling to help correct the time-lag which shows up on ultra-accurate atomic clocks.

It is the 24th time since 1972 that the adjustment has been made by the Paris based International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (snappy) at intervals varying from six months to seven years. The last occasion was in 2005.

The earth's trip around the sun is about 365.2422 days long, which is rounded down to 365 days. As everyone knows, every four years during a leap year, the inaccuracy is corrected by adding an extra day in February and this extra second will make 2008, (already a leap year), the longest year since 1992.