World clock jumps ahead by a second

Air Date: January 5, 2009

Can’t wait another second? Neither can WHYY-FM’s Dave Heller and astronomer Derrick Pitts. A Leap Second was added at 7 p.m. EST last Wednesday night because of discrepancy between the world’s atomic clocks and the Earth’s own slowing rotation. These seconds are added on an “as needed” basis and there have been 24 added on since 1972. Also, Spirit and Opportunity marked the beginning of their 5th year on Mars over the weekend. And the Earth is at its closest approach to the sun (yesterday actually but we’re still there really) and yesterday was the latest sunrise so it’s full steam ahead to summer![audio: st20090105.mp3]

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