Like 2012, 2015 will receive one more second to 30 June 2015 in order to calibrate our atomic clocks on the rotation of the Earth.
Generally, a year lasts 365 days. It still happens that one is left with a leap year to 366 days (February 29 added) because the Earth takes a few more hours to complete rotation around the sun. The year 2015 is not a leap year, but still it will last longer than 2014. In fact, it will last 365 days and one second. The second will be added June 30, 2015, so it will last 86,401 seconds instead of 86 400 seconds.
Decided by the Observatoire de Paris in the laboratory Time-Space Reference Systems this week, the addition of a second will re-synchronize our atomic clocks with the rotation of the Earth around the sun. Indeed, as the speed of rotation of the Earth decreases with time due to the tidal forces caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon, the second "astronomical" grows with time.
Therefore, it is essential to add a second time to time so that the time and the rotation of the Earth are synchronized. As explained Daniel Gambis, director of service rotation of the Earth to the observatory, "it's important to do it regularly. Otherwise, in 500 years we will be off by one hour from the position of the Earth. But we need to know its exact position for many applications, be it only to send a probe into space. "
The last time we had to add a second was in 2012, and this has already been done 24 times since 1972. The problem that now arises is still the computer systems that are not prepared for this kind of change. In 2012, they had experienced major malfunctions.
Generally, a year lasts 365 days. It still happens that one is left with a leap year to 366 days (February 29 added) because the Earth takes a few more hours to complete rotation around the sun. The year 2015 is not a leap year, but still it will last longer than 2014. In fact, it will last 365 days and one second. The second will be added June 30, 2015, so it will last 86,401 seconds instead of 86 400 seconds.
Decided by the Observatoire de Paris in the laboratory Time-Space Reference Systems this week, the addition of a second will re-synchronize our atomic clocks with the rotation of the Earth around the sun. Indeed, as the speed of rotation of the Earth decreases with time due to the tidal forces caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon, the second "astronomical" grows with time.
Therefore, it is essential to add a second time to time so that the time and the rotation of the Earth are synchronized. As explained Daniel Gambis, director of service rotation of the Earth to the observatory, "it's important to do it regularly. Otherwise, in 500 years we will be off by one hour from the position of the Earth. But we need to know its exact position for many applications, be it only to send a probe into space. "
The last time we had to add a second was in 2012, and this has already been done 24 times since 1972. The problem that now arises is still the computer systems that are not prepared for this kind of change. In 2012, they had experienced major malfunctions.
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