Time will tack hang for a second at the stroke of midnight tonight as an extra leap second is added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
For one tiny heartbeat at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, a minute will be 61 seconds long.
World clocks will officially add a "leap second" at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is the time standard set by highly precise atomic clocks. These official clocks, which set the time standard for the world, will shift to 23 hours, 59 minutes and 60 seconds before turning to midnight on Jan. 1.
A "leap second" will be added to the world's
official clocks on Dec. 31, 2016, to accommodate
Earth's gradually slowing rotation.
Credit: NASA
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http://www.livescience.com/57348-leap-second-added-tonight.html
