New Year is around the corner, but people around some parts of the globe will have to wait a bit longer to welcome 2017.
It has been reported that a 'leap second' will be added to the last minute of 2016, making the New Year come a little late. "On December 31, 2016, a leap second will be added to the world's clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)," the US Naval Observatory was quoted as saying by the Economic Times.
This is reportedly the 28th leap second. In simple terms, after 11:59:59 pm on December 31, 2016, time on the clock will tick to 11:59:60 and then 12:00:00. According to BGR, this change in clock time has been done in the interest of astronomers.
The report said that the change has been made in the clock in order to keep time linked to the position of Sun as Earth does not rotate at a constant pace, and to make the work of astronomers convenient.
Such leap second was added in consecutive years from 1992 to 1995, but sometimes it is not required for many years together like it happened from 1999 to 2005, the report added. This practice was first implemented in 1972 and since then, there have reportedly been 26 such instances.
It has also been reported that this change will not be implemented all over the world, but some parts of the globe. Countries in or to the West of the UTC 00:00 time zone will have this extra second in the last minute of 2016, reported Quartz. This report also said that places like Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Singapore and other parts of the East will have a leap second in 2017.
