A bit wobbly: the earth's erratic rotation means an extra second has been added to 2008. Photograph: Corbis
Tonight, the countdown to the new year will last just a little bit longer. Boffins have decided that, in order to match astronomical time to atomic time, an additional second is required.
The problem is the earth's shaky rotation: it's not as consistent as the Coordinated Universal Time we get from atomic clocks, and the two need to be re-synchronised.
The alternative, apparently, was to let the two systems run until, in a hundred or so years, a "leap hour" would be needed. But who wants to wait until then?
Perhaps it's not quite as exciting as the extra hour of sleep we all enjoy when the clocks go back. But there are still plenty of possibilities – the opportunity for an extra celebratory shot of tequilla, or as our correspondent suggests, a slightly longer snog.
What will you be doing as the clock strikes 23:59:60?
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Topic: Happy New year!!! (2009) (Read 2407 times)